Waiting Up
by ennuithereyet
Summary: Eren could never sleep until he saw that his boyfriends were home safe and sound.
1. Chapter 1

It was difficult never knowing when your lover was going to come home. For Eren, that difficulty was doubled.

He couldn't even begin to count the hours he'd spent wearing holes in the carpet in the living room or watching late-night infomercials on the TV because he didn't know when either of his two lovers were going to be home. He used to make dinner for them – mostly just simple things, since he'd never been very good at cooking – but after so much wasted food he'd learned to just let them fend for themselves, though more frequently he'd offer to make them something after they walked in the door. He had a hard time sleeping if they weren't back, or if he didn't at least know they were safe. He had gone through plenty of sleepless nights because their safety wasn't confirmed.

But he knew what he was getting into when he started dating spies.

It had been bad enough when he'd only been dating one of them, but then life happened and one thing led to another and he was dating both Erwin and Levi, who had been partners in crime – well, Eren didn't actually know that many details about their work, so he wasn't completely sure if it included crime or not, though it certainly came with plenty of injuries – for years. And since they usually worked together, more often than not Eren was staring at the door and hoping two people walked through it.

That was certainly the case tonight. Eren was watching some infomercial about a new-crazy-awesome-magical piece of fitness equipment at three a.m. while he waited for Erwin and Levi to walk in the door. He kept his eyes from straying to the door too often, since he refused to appear as worried as he was, and instead kept them trained on the cheery exercising people on screen as his mind went through all of the terrible things that could have happened to his boyfriends. It was painful to think about, but he'd been in this situation so many times before that he'd acquired a sort of numbness about it. He could, in a way, compartmentalize.

It wasn't until 3:27 that Erwin and Levi walked through the door. Eren schooled his face as he turned to look at them, and he could see the hints of guilt in their eyes when they realized that this hadn't been the one time Eren had managed to rest easy without them there. Neither of them liked that he stayed up worrying about them, but they knew there wasn't much they could do about it.

Eren kept his relief hidden as he said, "Hi," to his two lovers, but they both saw how the boy's eyes raked over them, checking for missing limbs or pools of blood. The only thing out of place that he found was Levi holding a hand over his upper arm, some blood visibly staining the fabric around it.

When Levi saw Eren's eyes focus on his wound he said, "It was only grazed."

Eren moved his eyes to lock with Levi's and there was a silent accusation there – a growl that said any wound is one too many, grazed in the arm or shot through the heart how dare you get hurt – but in a moment that accusation was gone and Eren nodded curtly as he unwound his arms from around his knees and stood from where he'd been sitting curled up on the couch. He turned away from his two lovers and said, "I'll make you something to eat," before he moved into the kitchen.

Erwin and Levi were used to this, but similar to Eren's worried waiting for them their guilt at making the boy worry never subsided. They shared a sad look before the moved to take of their shoes and coats, Levi keeping his bloodied jacket with him to throw in the trash later.

It was silent as Eren starting making two grilled-cheese sandwiches on the stove. He kept his eyes on the pan as they cooked, using this time, as he always did, to let go of his worries. He needed this moment of normalcy, this moment where he didn't have to face Levi or Erwin but he still knew they were alright, to slowly close his eyes and feel the tears – tears of relief, of anger, of joy, of hurt – welling up behind them and let them slowly drip down inside his body to settle in his stomach. He would never outwardly cry about this. He made that promise long ago. But there were moments like this where he needed to at least face away so he didn't have to try so hard to school his expression.

He heard Erwin and Levi moving around the kitchen behind him. Levi sat on one of the chairs at the table in the breakfast nook and took off his bloodied shirt as Erwin padded into the bathroom to get the first aid kit. The first aid kit, which saw so much use, and which contained more than just bandages for pricked fingers. Erwin pulled up a chair next to Levi's only slightly-bleeding arm when he returned with the kit and pulled out the materials to suture the grazed skin shut. He had just pulled the needle once through Levi's skin before Eren set down two plates, each with a sandwich, on the table. The boy washed his hands at the sink before he returned to his boyfriends and put a hand on Erwin's shoulder.

"Let me," he said quietly. "You eat."

Erwin looked like he wanted to argue, and Levi looked at Erwin, silently asking him to argue; neither of them wanted Eren to have to ever see any blood, so they didn't want to make him take over cleaning Levi's wound, but they also knew that in a way Eren needed this. He needed to feel useful, helpful. He needed to be able to see that his two lovers were whole, and if they weren't he needed to help them become so again. Neither of them liked involving Eren at all in their work lives, but they knew Eren needed it. So Erwin handed the needle to Eren and went to wash his hands before returning to the table to eat.

Eren focused entirely on his work, stitching up Levi's arm as perfectly as he was able, the same way he'd focused on making the grilled cheeses. Levi sat patiently, but Eren could feel the slight twitches in pain that he couldn't help making, and Erwin could see Levi's slightly furrowed brow. They all knew Levi had been through much, much worse, but there was always a pain to being sewn up to which one couldn't get accustomed.

When he finished, Eren secured some gauze to the wound with a large bandage. He then leaned forward and kissed the bandage like a mother might kiss a child's boo-boo to make it better. He just wanted to make it better.

Levi put his injured arm around Eren's shoulder and pulled the boy close to his side. He ate his sandwich with his free hand, and when both of them had finished eating Erwin went to wash them. Levi sat there for a minute, just holding Eren close, before he moved away to pack up the first aid kid.

Eren sat as his two lovers moved around the house to clean up, though they only took a minute because there wasn't much to do, until Erwin dried his hands with the dishtowel and walked over to where Eren was sitting. He held out both of his hands for Eren to take, and the boy stood and let himself be pulled into the larger man's chest. He listened to Erwin's breathing and heartbeat for a moment, and then Erwin released Eren except for his hold on one of they boy's hands as he led him to the bedroom. Eren had been in his pajamas for hours, so he padded into the bathroom and washed his teeth before crawling onto the large bed in their bedroom and sitting in the middle with his arms around his knees as he watched Erwin and Levi each change into sweats.

The two were finally ready for bed and they each got on either side of the bed, keeping Eren between them. Eren reached for Levi and pulled him close, pressing their lips together for a quick moment before the boy released him and turned to do the same to Erwin. He then maneuvered himself to get below the covers and let himself be squished between his two lovers. He wrapped his arms around Levi's waist and buried his face in the man's hair as Erwin spooned up behind Eren. Eren grabbed one of Erwin's legs between his own, trapping him maybe not as securely as he was able to with Levi, but still enough to make him feel safe. Enough to make him feel like they wouldn't leave. Enough to allow him to rest, knowing that they would both be there in the morning.

Erwin woke first the next morning, having gotten his body trained years ago to wake at exactly six a.m. So, even though he'd only gotten a little more than two hours of sleep, he woke anyway, still holding tight to Eren and the boy still gripping one of his legs between his own. He smiled at his two sleeping lovers and snuggled closer to them before falling back asleep, still tired after such a late night.

Eren woke next, but not until it was almost noon. He was groggy, but happy that both Erwin and Levi were still beside him and sleeping soundly. It was tough work to extricate himself from his lovers without waking them, and Levi actually did start to wake, but Eren quickly shushed him and gave him a small kiss, whispering, "No, keep sleeping," before he was able to get off the bed. Levi hummed and turned into the empty space Eren had left. The boy was pleased to see that he and Erwin didn't fill the space but rather just unconsciously pulled the blankets tighter around them. They were always telling Eren how he was practically a furnace, so he assumed they felt cold when he left.

After watching his lovers sleep peacefully for a minute, Eren went about his morning routine, showering and getting dressed and everything. He decided to just skip breakfast since it was already so late and made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, though he did have a cup of coffee with it. Even though he'd slept so late, he was still tired from waiting up so long in worry. He turned on the television and lowered the sound so it was barely audible so as not to wake his lovers in the other room and watched as he ate on the living room couch.

It wasn't until just after one that Eren heard the shower turn on, telling him that one of his boyfriends was awake. A few minutes later, Levi padded out into the kitchen, a fresh bandage on his wound, which was partially covered by the t-shirt he was wearing. The shirt was huge on him, so Eren assumed it was Erwin's. Whenever they were just lounging around the house, Eren found himself wondering if Levi owned any t-shirts of his own. He was always stealing them from Erwin and Eren. Though, the two of them didn't exactly mind.

Levi ate a yogurt as he waited for a fresh pot of coffee to brew, and Eren watched him from the other room. He watched as Levi poured his cup and stirred in a spoonful of sugar, and then how he took it by the rim in that distinct way he carried his cups and brought it into the living room and put it on a coaster next to Eren's own half-empty mug. He sat down next to Eren and, still mostly asleep as Levi almost always was before his first cup of coffee no matter how late he slept, pulled the boy into a kiss. He played with the hair just above the nape of Eren's neck, which never failed to make the boy groan, and when he did Levi just pulled away with a sleepy smirk and cuddled into Eren's side, picking up his coffee again and slowly sipping at it. Eren rested his head on Levi's shoulder while the man still absently played with his hair with the hand not holding his coffee and he allowed himself to relax. He nearly fell asleep as they sat there, vaguely paying attention to the crime show on TV.

He only became fully aware again when he heard someone clanging around in the kitchen. Knowing how terrible Erwin was at cooking, Eren shrugged out of Levi's side and downed the rest of his coffee before heading in to make sure the man didn't destroy anything. He put his empty mug in the sink and turned to see Erwin searching for something.

"What're you looking for?" Eren asked, amused at the older man's incompetence in the kitchen.

"The bread," Erwin muttered, still looking around. "I want to make a sandwich."

Eren smiled but made sure not to outwardly laugh at the man. "Did you check the breadbox?" He nodded over to where the box rested at the back of one part of the counter.

"We have one of those?" Erwin asked, going over to the box and opening it. Upon finding that there was indeed bread in there, he looked over at Eren as he took out the loaf. "So we do."

Eren gently shoved his way in front of Erwin, saying, "Let me make it for you. I don't want you to accidentally burn down the building."

Erwin stayed close to Eren, hugging him from behind and leaning down to kiss his cheek. "Thank you," he said. "But I don't know how I'd manage to burn anything while making a sandwich."

"Knowing you, you'd manage it," Levi said, suddenly appearing in the kitchen, finishing his coffee.

Eren snickered and took out two pieces of bread from the loaf. He paused then and called over to Levi, "Levi, do you want a sandwich, too?" He figured that since the other man had only had a yogurt so far today he might still be hungry.

"Sure," Levi said, leaning against a far counter and watching Erwin make Eren's job much more difficult by staying behind him and hugging the boy the entire time he was making the two ham sandwiches.

When he was done, Eren asked Erwin, "So, are you going to let me go so you can eat or are we staying like this?"

Erwin swayed with Eren in his arms, humming as he thought. "Eh, I think we'll stay like this," he ultimately decided, dragging Eren back into the living room and flopping down on the couch with the boy still on his lap, falling to the side because of their poor balance. They both laughed, and by the time Levi came in carrying both sandwiches the two were kissing. He let them be for a moment before he kicked at Erwin's foot.

"Oi," he said, sounding angry even though he wasn't. "Enough of that. You're supposed to be eating the sandwich, not Eren."

Erwin squeezed Eren tight and looked at Levi with puppy-dog eyes that were unbefitting of such a built man. "Aww," he complained, though after his whine he released Eren and sat up, reaching to take his sandwich.

Levi just smirked as he moved to sit on the other side of Eren. "We'll save him for dessert," he added, winking at Erwin.

Eren's face turned red – he could never get used to Levi saying things like that – and groaned, turning to bury his face in Levi's lap since it was now conveniently close. Of course, that put him dangerously close to Levi's crotch, and it didn't take him more than a few minutes to smile to himself and start mouthing at Levi's crotch through the man's loose lounge pants.

Once Levi caught on to what the boy was doing, he lightly slapped the back of Eren's head and said, "Hey. Bad boy. Not yet."

And that just made Eren's dick twitch in his pants as he smiled into Levi's groin.

Then he heard Erwin chuckle from behind him and he was picked up and settled on the man's lap.

"Well, I'm done with lunch, so I'll get started on dessert," the man said, bringing Eren in for a kiss that quite soon got hot and heavy.

Levi tried to keep eating his sandwich calmly and coolly, but after seeing Eren start grinding down on Erwin as the two made out, he'd had enough. He set down his plate that still had a quarter of a sandwich left on the coffee table and stood. He muttered, "You fuckers," before striding off to the bedroom.

Erwin and Eren both smirked into their kiss and Erwin stood, Eren still clinging to him, and followed Levi into the bedroom. He nearly threw the boy onto the bed and as soon as Eren was free from Erwin's lips Levi was on him, crashing his mouth to Eren's harsh enough that their teeth clacked together, biting at the younger's lips, nearly violent in his passion. Erwin undressed as the two went at it, not missing that Levi's shirt was already on the floor. Once he was fully naked he joined the two on the bed, pulling Eren on top of him and essentially trapping the boy between he and Levi. He prompted Eren to take of his shirt as Levi continued to attack his mouth, and when they had to separate to get the t-shirt off Levi growled and started licking and biting at Eren's chest instead. After his shirt was thrown on the floor, Eren turned his head to capture Erwin's lips again. Erwin knew that Eren's neck would start hurting if he kept that position very long so he trailed his lips down Eren's jaw and to his neck at began to suck marks there.

Now that his mouth was free, Eren was able to let out a loud moan as Levi sucked at one of his nipples and gave a quick bite. He scrambled to hold onto something to ground him, and his hands ended up tangled in Levi's hair as the man trailed his lips lower and lower towards the button of Eren's jeans. Levi brought up his hands to help him undo the button and zipper of the pants and Eren was forced to let go of the man's hair so that his pants and underwear could be pulled off and thrown to the ground.

Erwin stopped sucking marks onto Eren's shoulders to lean over to the end table and get the lube and condoms from the drawer. He handed the bottle of lube to Levi, who was guiding Eren to settle back on the bed and spread his legs. The man slicked up three of his long fingers and teasingly trailed them down Eren's cock and balls to circle around his entrance. As he watched Levi tease and Eren squirm, Erwin moved to settle behind Levi. He trailed his hands over the smaller man's chest, tweaking and pinching at his nipples. The man groaned, but remained enough in control of himself to slowly push a finger into Eren's tight hole. Eren groaned and held onto the bars at the headboard to give himself leverage to push down on Levi's finger, urging him for more. It didn't take long for the man to take a hint and insert a second finger. As he began scissoring Eren open, Eren opened his eyes to see that Erwin had captured Levi's mouth and the two were making out. The sight of that combined with the fingers that Levi just barely brushed over his prostate caused Eren to whimper and say, "Fuck, you guys…"

Levi looked at Eren through the corner of his eye and smirked at him before inserting another finger, every so often rubbing at the boy's prostate as he continued to bite and suck at Erwin's lips and tongue. Levi had always been a violent kisser, but Erwin's hand in his hair allowed the larger man enough control so that Levi didn't actually draw blood. They didn't separate until Eren pushed down hard on Levi's fingers and growled, "Levi."

The man smirked as he pulled away from Erwin to look at Eren, giving the boy's prostate one last rub before pulling his fingers out. He reached over to take a condom from where Erwin had left them on the bedspread but Eren grabbed his hand before he could take one.

"No," was all Eren said quietly, being sure to give Levi his best puppy-dog eyes. He knew Erwin had no qualms about barebacking but Levi was always going on about how much messier it was.

Levi gave Eren a long hard look, trying to silently get the boy to back down, but eventually he lost to his lover's too-convincing puppy-dog eyes. He withdrew his hand and lined his member up at Eren's entrance and muttered something along the lines of, "Disgusting," before he pushed in.

Eren moaned long and low as he was filled. Levi rubbed circles into his hips to distract from the slight pain, but they had done this enough before that he was for the most part used to it. While Levi paused after he was fully seated to give Eren time to adjust, the boy noticed Erwin still kneeling behind Levi and watching the two of them. He didn't miss how the elder's hand was slowly moving along his own cock, either. Eren reached a hand out to the man and grabbed for him, and Erwin obeyed, moving so he was kneeling next to Eren. The boy pulled him down into a kiss, pushing his hips back on Levi so the other man knew he could start moving, after which his kiss with Erwin became messier with Eren's body being shoved a little bit by Levi's hard thrusts.

Eventually, Eren's moans distracted him enough from the kiss that Erwin moved his lips away from the boy's mouth and began sucking a line down Eren's chest towards his leaking member. Soon enough Erwin took Eren in his mouth and goddam if that man didn't give the best blowjobs. He knew exactly where to nibble just a bit and how to press his tongue into the slit and could always manage to take him all the way down no problem. It wasn't long before Eren was clamping his eyes shut in an attempt to stay sane and pulling at Erwin's hair to get him to back off. He didn't want to be the first to come, not when he wanted to be fucked by both Levi and Erwin. Knowing that Eren was quirky that way, Erwin backed off, returning to kiss Eren until the boy was once again distracted by his own noises.

Not wanting to leave Erwin out completely, Eren felt around with his hand until he found the man's dick and started stroking. His rhythm was messy and he had virtually no technique when he was so overwhelmed, but Erwin appreciated it anyway.

At this point, Levi was digging his nails into Eren's hips, his own rhythm faltering as well as he neared his release. Erwin moved to kiss Levi, but the other man had seen that the man's mouth had recently been on Eren's dick, and so he pushed the man's mouth away, leaving Erwin to settle for sucking marks onto Levi's collar bones. Both he and Eren had gotten used to Levi's obsession with cleanliness, knowing that they would never get a blowjob from the man unless they were straight out of the shower, and that they wouldn't be kissed if any of them still had morning breath. It was a part of Levi that they'd come to appreciate over the nearly three years they had been together.

Eren's hand dropped Erwin's dick completely as Levi started thrusting harder, instead gripping the man's arm for stability. Levi nearly drew blood on Eren's hips with how tightly his nails were digging in, but the younger never minded. Levi started cursing under his breath, which he only did when he was almost to completion, and he finally thrust one last time into Eren and came with a quiet, "Fuck!"

Once he had come down from his high, Levi pulled out of Eren, making a face at how his come started to seep out of the boy's hole. He rolled over to the side to catch his breath for a moment, which allowed Erwin to take his place. The older man was much more gentle in his approach, smoothing his hands over Eren's sides to calm the boy a bit before lining himself up and leaning over to kiss the boy as he slid in. He went slowly, knowing that he was bigger than Levi and that Eren would need to adjust, so when he pulled away from Eren's lips and sat up he continued to smooth his hands down the younger's chest.

As Eren was still adjusting to Erwin's size, Levi finished catching his breath and leaned over to kiss at the boy's chest, taking what Eren considered his own sweet time making his way to a nipple before sucking and gently biting. His hand came up to tweak and pinch the other one, and after just a few moment of that distraction Eren was telling Erwin, "Move."

The man started gently, building up to a faster rhythm slowly. He pulled Eren's legs around his chest and ran his hands along the sensitive skin of the boy's inner thighs, making Eren moan. The boy reached down to stroke his own cock, but Levi slapped his hand away, instead taking Eren's member in his own hand. He was much more skilled than Eren's work on Erwin earlier, and it wasn't long before Eren was gripping a rail of the headboard in one hand and Levi's bicep in the other and babbling out nonsense as he neared his release. Levi sped up his hand and added a twist at the head of Eren's cock and then the boy was coming, Erwin continuing to thrust into Eren's wonderfully tightening hole, which prompted him to release as well, nearly falling on Levi in the process. He managed to catch himself and pull out of Eren before lying down beside the panting boy. Levi had gotten off the bed to go wash his hands but was soon back with a towel that he laid aside, knowing Eren would be too sensitive to clean up right away.

Eren had his eyes closed as he caught his breath and he groped blindly for Erwin's arm, which he pulled over himself in a weak attempt at cuddling. He was too blissed-out to move. He stayed where he was until Erwin pulled him on top of himself and wrapped his arms around the boy. Levi had climbed on the bed, too, and he snuggled into Erwin's side as best he could. The three of them were perfectly sated and content to settle down for a short nap, leaving cleanup for later time, when maybe they could all take a bath together in their huge tub. Eren found himself smiling into Erwin's chest and grabbing Levi's arm to hug like a stuffed animal, very near to falling asleep.

And then the doorbell rang.


	2. Chapter 2

Usually after sex there was this nice peaceful bubble of time where Eren could forget who exactly his boyfriends were. Sure, they were still Erwin and Levi, but they weren't spies. They didn't have fifteen guns hidden in various spots around the apartment – every once in a while Eren would forget that they were there until he opened a drawer and saw one and had to catch his breath. They didn't regularly sweep the apartment for bugs or change out their phones if they got the impression that theirs were tapped, which seemed to happen every month or so. They didn't have Eren always call the cable or electric company if they sent someone over to confirm that they were supposed to be there before he let them in. He didn't have to randomize which grocery stores he went to so that he didn't have a regular schedule someone could track. He didn't have to live in this unnatural paranoia.

But as soon as the doorbell rang, that all came crashing back to him. His bubble was burst and his boyfriends were spies again. Erwin shoved Eren off his chest almost roughly as soon as the sound reached their ears and by the time Eren looked up, both he and Levi had thrown on their pants and were armed with handguns, slowly heading towards the front door of the apartment.

Eren tore the sheet off the bed – it was dirty now anyway – and wrapped it around his waist as he stood up.

Levi glanced back at him when he heard the movement. "Get in the bathroom," he ordered, turning back to the threat that waited outside the door. Any visitor knew to call first, so to Erwin and Levi anybody who came unannounced was a threat. In their line of work, it was a decent assumption to make.

Still, even though he knew the risk, Eren was not fond of being ordered around like that right after sex, and he was just overall unhappy that his peaceful, no-threats-to-your-life bubble had been burst so abruptly, so he just stomped into the bathroom and shut the door. He closed the toilet lid and sat down and he tried to not be angry at Erwin and Levi for treating him like some little kid. He knew it wasn't their fault. They just didn't want him to get hurt or put him into any danger. But even so, Eren had never been a passive person, just sitting by while others did the work. He hated being treated like a damsel in distress. Besides, he couldn't imagine that what was waiting outside the front door was really a threat to their lives, so he remained for the most part pissed off that his post-coital nap got so rudely interrupted.

It was silent outside for a minute, and Eren imagined Erwin and Levi signaling silently to each other and arranging themselves in front of the door so that they had a good shot at the visitor if they happened to be a threat. He imagined Levi staying back with his gun raised as Erwin looked in the peephole to see that outside it was just-

"Helloooo!"

Of course it was Hanji. Hanji always chose the exact wrong time to come over, and would frequently forget to call first. Eren could faintly hear Levi complaining to Hanji about calling ahead and Hanji blowing Levi off, and when he heard Erwin mention that he was going to "go get Eren," he decided it was time to stand up and leave by himself. He didn't need to be fetched like some lady in waiting. He opened the bathroom door just as Erwin entered the bedroom, not caring that Hanji could possibly see him wearing just a sheet around Erwin in the doorway from the other room. He crossed to where his clothes had been thrown on the floor and started dressing, pretending to ignore Erwin in the doorway.

"I was just coming to get you," Erwin said, not realizing Eren's foul mood. "It's just Hanji."

"I could hear," Eren said blankly as he pulled on his jeans.

Erwin had entered the room and was putting on his own shirt when he noticed Eren's attitude. He went over to the boy and put a hand on his arm. "Is something wrong?" he asked.

Eren sighed with his shirt in his hands. He didn't look up at Erwin. "No… Yes, just…" He didn't want to get into the 'you're-dating-spies-so-you-always-need-to-be-on-high-alert' argument when they had a visitor. He didn't want to get into it at all, though it would probably end up coming about later. So he just lightly fudged the truth. "I was looking forward to our nap."

Realizing it was something that simple, or at least that's all Eren would admit to at the moment, Erwin chuckled and hugged Eren, who was still holding his shirt. "I know. I'm not too happy about being interrupted, either. At least Hanji didn't get here just a few minutes earlier, right?"

Eren nodded into Erwin's chest and the man released him so that he could get dressed. Once the both of them had finished, Erwin grabbed a shirt for Levi and the two of them went into the kitchen, where a disgruntled-looking Levi and an ever-enthusiastic Hanji were sitting. Erwin tossed Levi his shirt and he put it on as Hanji lit up when they saw Eren.

"Eren!" Hanji called, standing and hugging him even though he was still kind of pissed off. Hanji never seemed to care if someone was pissed off. "It's been so long since I last saw you!"

The boy attempted to smile but it came across more as a grimace, but it didn't matter because he was still being crushed in Hanji's arms. "Yeah…" he said weakly. "Um… Would you like some coffee?"

As Hanji accepted and thanked Eren for his very generous offer, Levi muttered in the background about "not letting that monster anywhere near caffeine." Eren ignored Levi's comment and he went to go change the grounds and start the coffee maker.

Hanji sat back down and Erwin joined them at the table, asking, "So, Hanji, what brings you over here?"

Levi added, "Unannounced."

Hanji just smiled at Levi's snark and said, "Well I heard that Mr. Grumpy here got hurt on last night's mission and I wanted to make sure he was okay!"

Levi scoffed. "How generous. I'm fine, though."

Hanji didn't listen to Levi's assurance and grabbed the man's bandaged arm, pulling off the bandage to look at the stitched-up wound as Eren came back to the table with cups of coffee for the four of them. His and Hanji's were black – "Hanji takes it black like their soul," Levi had told him the first time he'd offered them coffee – Levi's had a spoonful of sugar, and Erwin's just a dash of milk. Eren had learned their coffee orders long ago. He set the mugs down on the table and watched Hanji examine the wound he'd stitched up. He knew that Hanji took care of Erwin and Levi's – and other spies in whatever organization they worked for – health and was like the team doctor, but he had also overheard them talking about making explosives and poisons a few times when he had been listening in on things he shouldn't have been. So he didn't exactly know the extent of Hanji's job. He didn't exactly know a lot of things about the organization Erwin and Levi worked for. He didn't even know its name. But Eren did know that he would not want to be in a twenty-block radius of Hanji with explosives, but that was probably a good trait to have in this line of work. He could definitely see Hanji being able to blow things up.

The doctor – Eren had found out, since Hanji was a little bit more talkative about their work than Erwin and Levi, that Hanji at least had gotten their MD – poked and prodded at Levi's wound, making the man even more disgruntled. Eren sat down and he and Erwin just observed, sipping their coffees. "This is very nicely stitched, Levi," Hanji eventually said. They looked at Erwin. "Did you do this?"

Erwin put down his mug and smiled. "No, that was Eren," he said proudly, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Ooh, Eren, you're getting better!" Hanji exclaimed. Eren had asked Erwin and Levi to teach him how to suture a while back when he felt helpless whenever either of them came back hurt, and after some argument they decided it really couldn't hurt to know. Hanji had come over and helped him, showing him how to practice on oranges.

Still, Eren wasn't fond of how much field practice he got, actually stitching up one of his boyfriends. So, even though Hanji had meant it as a compliment, the words stung. "Yeah," he said with a forced smile. "Thanks."

Hanji had grabbed their bag and was rustling through it and looked up when they heard Eren's tone. "What's got you so down, buttercup?" they asked, still searching for something in their bag. Hanji was like Mary-fucking-Poppins with that bag of theirs. They had everything in there. They eventually pulled out a large bandage and replaced the one they had pulled off Levi's arm to inspect the wound.

Eren didn't want to answer Hanji's question, so he took a sip of his coffee instead. Erwin answered for him when he saw Eren's evasiveness.

"You may have interrupted an, ah, intimate moment when you arrived," he said diplomatically.

Hanji got the message and perked up. "Oooh, so you three were in the middle of spanking the monkey, eh?" they motioned between the three of them and made some weird gesture that the others assumed was meant to be something lewd.

"No, but we had just finished," Levi said, not caring what the doctor knew about their sex life.

"Oooh," Hanji said. They looked at Eren across the table, who had his head resting on his crossed arms on the table now, and stood up and walked around to the boy. They wrapped their arms around him, once again nearly crushing his ribcage. "I'm sorry, honeybuns! I didn't know I was interrupting cuddle-time!"

"You would have known if you had called first," Levi reminded.

Hanji shot Levi a sharp look, still not letting go of Eren. "Well, I'm sorry I was worried about your health and wellbeing!"

"You know we'd call you if it was something serious, Hanji," Erwin reminded.

Eren gasped for air, still being crushed. "Hanji?" he gasped. The doctor looked down at him questioningly. "Could you let go of me please?"

"Oh!" Hanji exclaimed when they noticed how blue Eren was turning. "Sorry, sweetcheeks!" They let go of him and walked around to their seat at the table as Eren was finally able to breathe again. The four of them sat in relative silence for a minute, just sipping their coffee. Hanji would often begin a sentence but then glance at Eren and stop, knowing that Erwin and Levi tried to keep the boy as detached from their work lives as possible.

Eventually Eren got the hint. He took his mug and stood, saying, "I'll be in the bedroom." He grabbed his laptop and headphones from the living room before practically marching off into the bedroom and closing the door behind him. He hated it when things got this way, when everybody tiptoed around him because he was the innocent little kid who wasn't allowed to know anything. He knew Erwin and Levi did it to keep him safe, but… that didn't mean it was any less frustrating. And besides, what would be so bad about him knowing what was going on? If anything, it would help put his mind at ease, knowing where Levi and Erwin were and what they would be doing. It had to be better than whatever horrific fantasies his mind conjured up. But no, he had to be kept in the dark about everything. He tried not to get jealous of Erwin and Levi, because he knew relationships like theirs didn't work if one of them was jealous of the other two, but there was just so much more that they knew about each other than he knew about them. As much as Eren tried not to let that get to him, he couldn't help it sometimes. And when he started thinking that way, the only thing he could do was try to ignore it. He laid down on the bed, which still reeked of their recent activities, and opened his laptop, deciding that what he really needed to do right now is play some violent videogames.


	3. Chapter 3

Hanji settled back in their chair after the door to the bedroom shut. They looked from Erwin to Levi, wondering if either of them was going to say something about what was up with Eren. And something definitely was definitely up with Eren. Hanji knew that it wasn't something to just bring up blatantly, though. That may be Hanji's preferred way of changing subjects, but it would cause Erwin and Levi to just shut down. This required a subtler approach.

"So," Hanji said, running a finger around the rim of their coffee mug. "How did last night's mission go?"

"Fine," Erwin said.

"You would have heard if it'd gone otherwise, wouldn't you?" Levi added. Both he and Erwin could tell Hanji was trying to get at something, but they didn't know what.

"Did you get the disk?"

Ah, of course Hanji would want to know about the disk. Hanji may not be the resident computer expert, but they still had a fascination with hacking.

"Of course," Levi said, getting annoyed with questions Hanji should already know the answers to.

"Well, I mean, not everything went to plan now did it, Levi?" Hanji asked, leaning forward and eying the bandage on the man's arm.

"We may have had a close call with some guards getting out of there," Erwin explained.

Hanji raised an eyebrow upon hearing that it was just security guards and gave Erwin a meaningful look.

"Hey, you don't know the kind of security they have there," Erwin said in defense of his and Levi's skill. "That place is Fort Knox."

"Whatever you say," Hanji responded. "We could have gone with my plan and blown the place up."

"Yeah," Levi said sarcastically, "And we could have learned absolutely nothing about them other than that one of their safehouses looks pretty going down in flames."

Hanji shrugged, knowing that Levi was right. There had been a reason they hadn't gone with the doctor's plan, after all. "So do you have it here or did you get it to boss?"

"Are you kidding?" Levi asked, his voice low and harsh. "Of course we wouldn't keep it here, you know why we couldn't!" He eyed the bedroom door, and both Hanji and Erwin followed his gaze.

Hanji chewed their bottom lip, leaning back in their chair. "About that," they said slowly. Levi and Erwin's eyes turned cold as they landed on the doctor. "You know you can't keep on like this, right?"

Levi scoffed and sat back in his chair, taking a long sip of his coffee. It was made just like way he liked it. Eren always made it perfectly, the damn brat.

Erwin had a more mature response, though not at all more open to this line of conversation. "It's the only way to keep him safe, Hanji," he said, speaking quieter even though he was fairly sure Eren wasn't listening in.

"How can you be sure, though?" Hanji asked. "How can you be sure him not knowing anything is keeping him any safer than if he did know something? Do you think the Titans will care if he doesn't actually know anything? If anybody you've got against you will? Sure, it'll waste their time interrogating him but it won't stop them from trying to take him!"

Levi slammed his hands on the table. "He will not be taken, Hanji," he growled. "We're making sure he's protected and watching his back at all-"

"And it's killing him, you guys!" Hanji interrupted loudly. "I know that you can see it! He can't stand living like this!" The three of them looked to the bedroom door to make sure there was no movement in response to Hanji practically yelling. Hearing no movement, the doctor went on more quietly, "Eren is not somebody you can treat like some stereotypical fifties housewife who stays at home and does the cooking and follows whatever her husband tells her without a single actual thought in her head."

Erwin tried to cut in. "We don't-"

But Hanji just held up a hand and kept on the tirade. "Eren is a lot stronger than either of you would like to admit. And no matter what you do, your very existences are putting him in danger. So get the fuck used to it and stop pushing him away. You're just hurting yourselves and him."

Levi and Erwin were silent for a while, looking at their coffee mugs like chastised children.

"It's not like we're treating him like a kid," Levi finally said in defense. "I took him to the shooting range, taught him how to use a gun."

"And then I took him there again so he would actually learn rather than be yelled at the whole time," Erwin added with a smirk. Levi glared at the man. "You've never been a very good teacher, Levi," Erwin reminded. Hanji nodded in agreement.

"Whatever," Levi said. "Point is, we're making sure he's protected."

"And how exactly are you doing that?" Hanji asked. "By sending him off to his room so the grown ups can talk business? Think about if you were in his position, Levi."

Erwin and Levi both sat back in their chairs, and Levi slumped a bit. After a long minute of trying to figure out a defense, Levi let out a breath and said, "Crap." It was the closest anyone would ever get to Levi admitting he was wrong.

"What other option do we have, Hanji?" Erwin asked. "Most of this stuff is Need to Know and I don't think the boss will consider this necessary."

"Well, obviously you can't tell him everything but you could tell him something," Hanji said. "And you could stop making him think he's going to be jumped every time he forgets to look over his shoulder. Stop making him change which stores he goes to, having him tell you whenever he leaves or arrives someplace so you know he got there safely. And definitely stop having him under surveillance at work. It's the one place he feels somewhat normal but he knows you're having people watch him."

"And how do you know this?" Levi asked.

Hanji sat up straighter in their seat. "Eren and I talk."

"You do?" Erwin asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes," Hanji replied. "I would have thought you'd have bugged his phone and known already, but I see at least you're not at that point yet." Levi wisely chose not to mention that he had seriously considered doing just that not too long ago. "Sometimes Eren needs someone to talk to about how frustrating you two are. And since you don't allow him to tell his other friends anything about you other than that you exist," she gave Erwin and Levi each a pointed look, "He and I sometimes have coffee or lunch while you two are gallivanting around the city, ignoring him."

"We do not ignore him!" Levi argued, voice rising.

"Okay, fine, not ignore," Hanji allowed. "While you two are… keeping him out of the loop, let's say."

"We don't have any other choice," Erwin said.

"Of course you do," Hanji said. "Just none of your other options are very easy. You could always go against orders, tell Eren what he wants to know. You could leave the job, though that doesn't really take care of the people who would still be after you either way. You could see if Eren would be able to join the organization." Erwin and Levi each shot Hanji a very dark look. "He's strong-willed, determined; I could see him being an asset," Hanji explained, before ending the list of options with the one Erwin and Levi would least want to hear. "Or you could break up with him. Let him live his own life without all this paranoia."

Before any of them could blink, Levi was holding Hanji by the front of their shirt and glaring daggers into their eyes. "Don't even suggest that," he growled.

"I'm just saying that it is an option!" Hanji said.

Erwin stood and walked behind Levi, gently taking hold of the man's wrists and prompting him to let go of the doctor. "Levi," he said calmly, even though he was just as disturbed at the thought of breaking up with Eren as Levi was. Levi relented and let go of Hanji, shrugging Erwin off as well to sit back in his seat. Erwin sat down as well once he knew Levi wasn't going to attempt murder.

"We cannot make that decision for him," Erwin said, trying to be the reasonable one even though just the hypothetical situation hurt. "We can't tell him that he'd be happier without us. If that is true," he paused to make sure his voice wouldn't crack and his face wouldn't show any emotion. "Then it is something he would have to decide on his own. Though he would still be in danger the rest of his life, simply for having associated with us before."

Levi had folded up in his seat, shins resting against the edge of the table as he put his crossed arms on his knees. He refused to be a part of this discussion anymore.

"You're right," Hanji admitted. "You really have screwed up his whole life." Erwin and Levi glared again and Hanji held up their hands in surrender. "Sorry. And I'm sorry for suggesting that you break up with him. I just want you two to know that things can't keep going the way they are."

It was silent then as the three of them finished their coffees. "I should get going," Hanji said once they were done, standing from the table. They knew as long as they stayed the mood would remain sour, so instead Hanji headed for the bedroom door and knocked. "Eren?" they called.

It took a minute for Eren to move his things away and open the door. "Yeah?" he asked when he finally did.

"I'm heading out now," Hanji responded.

"Okay." Eren returned the hug that Hanji gave him this time, even though he still thought the doctor may have cracked a few ribs with how sufficatingly-tight these hugs had been. "See you later," Eren added in a wheeze when he was finally released from the hug.

"Bye!" Hanji called as they grabbed their bag and left.

Erwin stood to redo the locks on the door once the doctor had left. Eren remained in the doorway to the bedroom, leaning on the doorframe. Levi grabbed the empty mugs from the table and went to put them in the dishwasher.

"Did you finish your coffee?" Levi asked Eren, remembering the boy had taken his mug into the room earlier.

"Yeah," Eren said. "Yeah, hold on." He went back in the bedroom to grab his mug and close his computer, not caring that he was in the middle of a game. He was just replaying a level he'd played before, anyway, so he didn't care about saving. He went into the kitchen and handed Levi his mug and observed his two boyfriends for a minute. Levi, who was putting the mugs in the dishwasher even more particularly than he usually was. Erwin, who was shuffling through yesterday's mail pile as if there was something more interesting in it than bills and catalogs. "So," Eren said slowly. "Everything ok?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Levi answered, just a bit too quickly. Erwin kept going through the mail.

Eren rolled his eyes, annoyed that he was being lied to again. "Whatever," he said, and he didn't care that he was being passive aggressive. He walked through the living room and got his shoes from the coat closet, sliding them on without bothering to tie them correctly. He checked his pocket for his phone and grabbed his wallet and keys from the drawer of the table by the door. "I'm going to Armin's," he announced as he opened the door, and he didn't look back as he let it slam shut behind him, even though he knew Erwin would be back there in a second to redo the locks. He just took the stairs down to the ground floor, got into his car, and drove away.


	4. Chapter 4

He was being a bit immature, he knew that. But sometimes he was allowed to be immature. If he was going to be treated like a kid, why not act like one? Eren had only gotten a few blocks away when he remembered that Armin would be at work. Hell, Armin was always at work or in class, but that's what he got for trying to pay his way through med school. He could call Mikasa and see if she was available, but she would definitely notice he was upset and wouldn't let him out of her sights until she knew what was wrong, and it wasn't exactly like Eren could tell her. Eren pulled into a convenience store parking lot as he tried to figure out where he would go. He took out his phone and was at least a little mollified by the fact that Erwin and Levi hadn't tried calling him yet, demanding he come back. He went through his contacts. Most of them would be free; it was a Saturday afternoon, after all.

He ended up calling Sasha and Connie, since they wouldn't ask any questions and would just be fun to hang around with. They were, as he'd suspected, free, and told Eren to come over. The two shared a small apartment on the other side of town, and had been living together since the second year of college. There was an awkward year where nobody wanted to ask if they were together or just good friends, and nobody could figure it out, but eventually Mikasa was the brave one and asked. They were together, and Armin had won ten bucks from Eren in the bet.

When Eren got out of his car in front of Sasha and Connie's apartment, he looked at his phone again, which had remained silent the whole way there, and debated if he should tell Levi and Erwin his change of plans and that he had gotten there safely. He knew it was a bit petty, and that by not texting them he was just making them worry, but he decided that he was a grown up and didn't need to check in with them all the time. So he pocketed his phone and went up to his friends' apartment.

The afternoon consisted of videogames – Connie nearly broke a controller during Super Smash Bros. – high-calorie snacks – Sasha had shown Eren the culinary orgasm that is melted chocolate chips on popcorn (he would feel too fat eating something like that in front of his fitness-nut, clean-freak boyfriends) – and beer. Lots of cheap beer. Ymir and Christa came over later and they all had pizza for dinner. Eren didn't notice his phone buzzing in his pocket over his amazement at Sasha devouring and entire pie by herself. That girl may have been on the track team all through college, but everyone agreed that she would be awesome at competitive eating. (Sasha didn't like competitive eating, though; food, to her, was supposed to be fun, not sport.) By the time most of them were drunk off their asses and annoyed at Christa for being so damn good at Mario Kart – she was good, but it was even easier playing against a bunch of drunk people when she only had one beer the whole night – it was already ten o'clock.

Christa offered to drive Eren home, since he was decently wasted, so Eren decided he'd worry about picking up his car tomorrow. It wasn't anywhere it'd get towed, so he didn't find it in him to care about it at the moment and just graciously accepted Christa's generosity. The girl dropped him off at the door to the apartment complex, and Eren made it up the elevator and to the door on his own, only swaying a little bit.

They keys were a bit more difficult, however. He had trouble figuring out which one when where – why did they need four different locks on their door, anyway? – so he fumbled around for a minute trying to get it right.

He ended up not having to, though, because the door was opened for him and he was immediately engulfed in Erwin's arms. The man kept hugging Eren as he backed them into the apartment so he could close the door behind him, and Eren was enough out of it that he allowed himself to be practically dragged.

"Where were you?" Erwin asked, releasing Eren from his grasp. Eren's drunk ears couldn't tell if the man sounded more relieved or angry.

"I was," Eren said, furrowing his brow in concentration. He didn't even question that they had known he wasn't at Armin's. They probably had imbedded a GPS tracker in his skin sometime when he was asleep. Or they just tried contacting Armin to make sure Eren got there all right. They'd done that before. He tried to form a whole sentence about where he had been, and failed. "Sasha and Connie's."

"You said you were going to Armin's," Eren heard from Levi, who he saw leaning tensely against the wall of the living room.

Eren began taking his shoes off and putting his things away. He wanted to get to bed. He was tired. "He was at work," Eren explained, not noticing just how upset Erwin and Levi were. "I forgot that when I told you."

"Why didn't you text us and tell us where you were going when your plans changed?" Erwin asked.

Eren took a moment to focus his eyes on Erwin's face, realizing how angry he was. The boy chuckled and leaned into Erwin's chest, since he was still right in front of him, looking up at his face and smiling. "Don't like it when people don't tell you things, do you?" he asked, bringing a finger up to boop Erwin's nose. He then pulled away and waddled off to the bedroom. The sober part of him was proud for finally giving Erwin and Levi a taste of how he always feels. The drunk part of him wanted to sleep and was glad that Erwin and Levi didn't seem to be stopping him. He flopped face-first onto the bed, not caring that he was still completely dressed or that the lights in the room were on. He just allowed himself to drift off to sleep.

He didn't get to sleep for long, though. Somebody was turning him over and tugging his shirt over his head, which was enough for him to groggily wake. "Wha-?" he managed to ask, opening his eyes enough to see that Levi was the one trying to undress him.

"I'm just getting you ready for bed, brat, don't worry about it," Levi said, though even in his sleepy state Eren could tell the man's voice didn't have the same bite to it that it usually did.

As Levi tried to wriggle the pants off an unhelpful Eren, Erwin came in and sat on the bed. The man stroked Eren's hair lightly, and the younger subconsciously turned into the touch, nearly asleep again. "We were really worried about you, Eren," Erwin eventually said.

Eren cracked his eyes open to squint at the man, but it was too bright for him to open his eyes properly. "Well, I worry about you, too," he replied.

Erwin just sighed and took his hand away from Eren's hair. "At least tell us you didn't drive home."

Eren actually did open his eyes this time, for the sole purpose of rolling them at Erwin. "I'm not an idiot. Christa drove me home." He closed his eyes again to resume drifting off. "Christa's a good driver. She can even drive Rainbow Road."

Levi and Erwin shared confused looks. Eren didn't have to have his eyes open to know that the older men wouldn't get it. "God, you're so old," he said, turning over onto his stomach. Levi tried to pull him up so his head was actually by the headboard where the pillows were. "Rainbow Road is in Mario Kart. It's a game."

"But she drove you back in a real car, right?"

Eren sighed. "Yes. Geez, I'm not stupid, now let me sleep."

Erwin and Levi worked together to get Eren's body actually under the covers instead of on them, and by the time they had succeeded, Eren's breathing had evened out and the boy had fallen back asleep.

After ensuring that Eren was tucked in tight, Erwin and Levi turned off the light in the bedroom and went back into the living room. Erwin sat down on the couch and Levi curled up on his lap, which he did to Eren and Erwin whenever he got the chance. Sometimes being the smallest of them all was an advantage.

"What are we going to do?" Erwin asked once they were settled.

"I mean, I guess we could do what Hanji suggested," Levi offered.

Erwin was startled. "You don't mean-"

"No!" Levi cut in. "Not that. I mean about the not being so protective."

"Yeah," Erwin agreed. "Aururo will be glad to not have to waste his day hanging around Eren's work."

"That was a stupid idea in the first place," Levi said. "You're the one who came up with it."

"You agreed," Erwin reminded him.

"Whatever. So we'll tell him he can stop. What else? That's probably not enough."

"Well, I suppose we don't need him to tell us where he is every time he goes somewhere else…"

"You know," Levi said, nuzzling into Erwin's chest as he stifled a yawn. "Talking about this all out loud makes us sound a lot creepier than I had thought we were."

"It really does."

They were silent for a few minutes and Erwin almost thought Levi was asleep when the smaller suddenly said, "We should tell him more, also. About us."

"What do you mean?" Erwin asked. "You know we can't-"

"Not about our current job. But we can tell him about past ones. I don't see how that could really hurt."

"Unless the past comes back to haunt us, which it always tends to do."

Levi stared at a random spot on the sofa. "It would be worth it. If it means keeping Eren," he said quietly.

Erwin wanted to respond, to say that Eren wouldn't leave them over something like this, but he knew that the words wouldn't be true, so he stopped them before they came out of his mouth. Instead, he kissed Levi's head and said nothing.

They sat there in silence for a few more minutes before Levi yawned again.

"We should go to bed," Erwin said. So they stood and brushed their teeth and changed their clothes and got into bed, cuddling up to Eren from either side as they drifted to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Erwin woke, as usual, at six o' clock in the morning. Today he actually got out of bed at that time, like he usually tried to, because he had a routine. He would go to the gym, come back, shower, and by then Eren would have woken up and made breakfast so that Erwin wouldn't burn down the building in his attempts. But when he got back that day, there was no breakfast ready. He was confused for a moment before remembering the events of the night before. As he stood in the kitchen wondering how to use the coffee maker – normally it was already made, but Eren must have not set it up to brew the night before like he usually did – Levi walked in, freshly showered. Erwin had heard the shower going in the other room and had debated waiting for coffee until whoever it was – though he assumed it was Levi – finished, but his caffeine addiction was too strong. So instead, Levi walked in on Erwin holding the coffee machine above his head and reading the warning labels on the bottom of it.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Levi asked as he walked over.

"Trying to make coffee," Erwin answered, still reading the bottom of the machine. "Why doesn't it come with instructions?"

"Because everybody fucking knows how to make coffee, you idiot," Levi said. He debated reaching up to grab the machine from him but realized he wouldn't be able to grab it – fucking giant. So instead he settled on adding, "Put that thing down."

Erwin complied, and Levi shoved him out of the way so he could properly make the coffee. The older man observed what Levi did, but none of it stuck in his mind. Honestly. He could pick up a new language in just under a month, but he couldn't remember how to use a coffee maker.

At least he got his coffee in the end, though, once Levi had let it brew and poured them each a cup. Erwin added his milk – Levi didn't remember to, since Eren usually made the coffee – and took the first sip and was finally able to relax a bit. He really should do something about this caffeine addiction.

It was then that the two spies heard a groan from the bedroom. They went to go check on Eren, who was now sitting up in bed with a hand over his eyes to shield him from the light coming in the window.

"Good morning," Levi said.

Eren gave him the finger and flopped back down, burying his head in a pillow as he said, "Fuck you."

Erwin chuckled. "A little hungover?"

"Fuck you too," Eren said, his voice muffled in the pillow. But then he shot up again and hurtled out of bed into the bathroom, from which Erwin and Levi heard the hungover boy throwing up.

Levi grimaced and headed back out of the bedroom. "You take care of it," he said to Erwin before going to the living room.

Erwin sighed and headed into the bathroom. He tried to comfort Eren through the rest of his hangover nausea and helped clean him up when he was finished, nodding along as Eren swore he would never drink again even though he knew that wasn't true. Every time Eren started drinking he would forget how bad his hangovers get.

After about half an hour, Eren was all cleaned up and ready to face the day with a terrible headache, so he and Erwin headed out of the bathroom – Eren snagged a couple Motrin on the way out – and into the kitchen, where Eren practically lunged for the coffee maker, glad to see that there was already some made. He poured himself a mug and started drinking it quickly as Levi came back into the kitchen.

"Feeling better?" Levi asked, and Eren thought it was weird that Levi wasn't insulting him and telling him that he had better scrub the bathroom clean later. Then he remembered more about what had happened, about his walking out in anger and then later trying to give them a taste of their own medicine. He wasn't sure how to react. Part of him instinctually wanted to apologize for making them worry, but he held his tongue. He still felt like his actions were justified.

So Eren just stood there for a minute before remembering that the question wasn't about why he walked out or said what he did, it was about if he was feeling better. "Yeah," he finally said. "Yeah."

Levi nodded and took a sip of his own coffee. The three of them stood there for a few minutes, just sipping their coffee as they didn't look at each other. Eventually Levi finishes his coffee and puts his mug in the sink, after which he puts a hand on Eren's arm and pulls the younger down for a kiss. Eren's surprised for a moment and then relaxes into the gentle kiss right before Levi pulls away, saying, "Living room." Eren doesn't think he's ever heard Levi as nervous as he was when he said those two words, and even though he's confused, he follows the order and the three of them file into the room. Erwin sets his coffee down on a coaster and sits on the couch, and Eren does the same with his mug before sitting next to the man and relaxing into his side. Levi waits until the two are settled before crawling onto Eren's lap, letting the younger hold him around the waist to keep him there. It's a comfortable position, the three of them cuddled together, but Eren can feel the unease clouding the room. Something was up, and he wanted to know what it was.

"So…" Eren said when neither of his boyfriends began talking.

Erwin cleared his throat. "Levi and I have realized that we've been… a little overprotective-" Eren scoffed at the 'little,' but Erwin kept on, "and unfair to you, and we recognize that we can't keep being that way without you being unhappy."

Eren mulled this over. He wondered how they were actually planning on changing things. "And?" he asked after a minute.

"And," Levi said. "We're not going to make you tell us everywhere you're going."

Eren waited a moment. "Is that it?"

Levi thought about adding in that they wouldn't have him under surveillance at work anymore, but even though Hanji said Eren knew about it, it wasn't something that had ever been brought up between them so he decided not to mention that they were stopping it. Instead, he kept his mouth closed and allowed Erwin to introduce the next part.

"We also don't want to keep so much from you anymore. We can't… we can't tell you about our current job, but we'll try to answer any other questions you have about… about what we do."

One question immediately jumped to Eren's tongue, but as he opened his mouth to say it he wondered if he really wanted the answer. He wasn't sure, so he didn't ask it. He knew Erwin and Levi saw him close his mouth after almost saying something, but neither of them asked him what it was he hadn't asked. It took Eren some time to think of something Erwin and Levi would be able to answer, but his boyfriends gave him the time. "How," Eren began, and he had to clear his throat. "How did you guys get into… this?" It seemed wrong to say the actual word aloud for some reason.

Erwin looked at Levi to see if he would answer the question, but he saw how Levi had stiffened and was staring at a spot on the wall. Eren noticed, as well, and wondered if he had already crossed some line. He was only reassured once Erwin began to answer.

"It wasn't that exciting for me," he said. "I've told you that I come from a military family, right?" Eren nodded, though in his position he couldn't fully look at Erwin. "When I was eighteen, I enlisted, and later I was picked out of training and offered a job where I am now. I agreed, they trained me, and here I am."

"So, you work for the government?" Eren asked.

Erwin sucked in a deep breath as he contemplated how much he could tell. Eventually he exhaled and answered, "Yes. But not a part that most people have heard of."

Eren could tell that by 'most people' Erwin meant 'you.' He could also tell that he wasn't going to get the name of the organization, so he moved to another question. "Why did you say yes?"

Erwin laughed a bit at that. "That's a good question," he said, scratching his chin with the hand that wasn't around Eren. "Part of it was because I wanted to serve my country." It was Levi's turn to scoff, but again Erwin kept going. "Part of it was the pay – it's a lot nicer than what I'd get if I'd stayed where I was. And part of it was… well, who doesn't want to be a spy? It seemed… glamorous."

"Seemed?"

"Well, there was a bit more being holed up in caves than I'd thought there would be. And most of the time you don't get to walk away as the building explodes behind you like they do in the movies. Most of the time you're running, trying not to get hit by debris."

The image of Erwin and Levi getting caught up in an explosion caused the breath to hitch in Eren's throat. Erwin noticed, and leaned down to press a kiss on Eren's head. "You know we've made it out alright each time," he murmured.

Eren stayed still and tried not to sound as worried as he was when he said, "Except when you come home late with new scars or bullet holes."

"But we're each still in one piece, right Eren?" Erwin tried to assure him.

Eren didn't respond. He didn't want to go down this hole again. This was a conversation they'd had before, and it never went anywhere good. It just became an issue of yes, they've always come home all right before, but that didn't guarantee that they always would, and after that was brought up nobody had anything else to say. So Eren didn't want to go down that road. Instead, he shifted his focus to Levi. "What about you, Levi?" he asked, trying to get rid of the tightness in his throat. "How did you get started?" He already knew that Levi had had a tough childhood, but they never really talked much about it. It was a sensitive topic, but Erwin knew all about it, and they said they'd answer Eren's questions, and he wanted to know.

Levi shifted in Eren's arms, keeping his face hidden from Eren and Erwin. He was quiet for so long that Eren was about to repeat the question for fear that Levi hadn't heard it the first time when the man began to answer. "I was in with a bad crowd when I was a teen," he said stiffly. "Erwin and his team were working on something involving that crowd. It came down to either I helped them out or I get thrown in jail for the rest of my life, so obviously I chose to help them out. I didn't actually give a fuck about most of the people I was hanging around with. So I helped them out and saved this idiot's life," Levi jabbed a thumb back at Erwin. "And he was stupid enough to ask me to join them. It was that or jail, and this came with dental."

Eren had a lot of questions. He wanted to know what this group was. He wanted to know what Levi had done that would have gotten him thrown in jail for life. He wanted to know how he saved Erwin's life. He wanted to know why he hadn't known that Erwin was the reason Levi was who he was today. That last part was what hurt the most. He had known the two had a past, and he'd accepted that, but it went back a lot further than he had thought. He tried not to let it get to him. He knew now, at least, and that's what matters. They were opening up, and Eren knew he wouldn't like everything he heard, but that didn't mean he didn't want to know it.

He was quiet for so long that Erwin furrowed his brows and looked down at him and asked, "Is that all you wanted to know?"

"No," Eren immediately responded, shaking his head. "I just… I'm trying to…" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and asked the question that had been eating at him since the beginning of this conversation. "Have you ever killed anybody?"

Erwin and Levi froze and when Erwin eventually answered, he sounded afraid of what his answer would bring. "Yes," he said simply, and he moved his arm off of Eren and Levi shifted his weight so that if Eren wanted to get away from them he could.

But Eren didn't move. He kept his eyes closed and let out a breath he'd been holding, before he shut his eyes even tighter and struggled for a minute to find the words to his next question. "Were they…" he began, and he stopped to figure out the rest of the sentence before beginning again. "Have you ever… killed… an innocent person?" He hated the way his voice was shaking, and he still wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer, but he knew that he needed to know.

Erwin took a deep breath before he answered. "Not on purpose." Eren relaxed slightly at the words, because even though it was a 'yes,' it confirmed Erwin's good intentions.

He then realized that Levi hadn't answered. "Levi…?" Eren asked, again afraid of the answer.

Levi was silent before answering this question as well. Eren could barely feel him breathing in his arms he was so still. But he eventually said, "Not on purpose since I started this job."

Eren thought of all the implications of that answer. Levi had killed at least one innocent person on purpose in his life. Eren thought about asking how many, but that was a question he didn't need to know the answer to, and he wasn't sure Levi would answer it anyway. It also meant that both he and Erwin had killed innocent people by accident. He wondered how you could just kill somebody by accident, somebody who had a life and a family and had done nothing wrong, and keep doing the job that caused that to happen. He wanted to ask them how they lived with themselves. But he had heard the regret in their voices, and he knew that question would cut too deep. They may be allowing him to ask questions, but that didn't mean he should ask them all.

So instead he let it be silent for a few minutes. His coffee was going cold on the table, but he didn't want to move and disrupt the hold he had on Levi or move from his place leaning into Erwin's side. They were all just lost in their thoughts as Eren tried to find another question, one that he knew he wanted answered, and before he found one he leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Levi's still-tense shoulder. He kept his forehead resting there as he thought about what he wanted to know.

Eventually he found a question. "Are there good parts?" he asked quietly. "To doing what you do?"

The atmosphere instantly relaxed. Erwin put his arm back around Eren and Levi leaned back into Eren's chest.

"There are," Erwin answered. "The travel. If you're not in a cave in the jungle you're usually at a pretty high-end hotel and eating a five-star restaurants. It's pretty nice for a work trip, until you get to the… well, the work." He chuckled.

Levi turned his head to look back at Eren. "And like we've said, the pay."

Erwin put his feet up on the coffee table and ignored the glare Levi sent his way. "There's also the fact that in the end we're going good. We're helping people, most of the time, or our country."

Eren nodded slowly. It did sound pretty nice. But then again, they also had to live with the guilt of killing innocent people. So Eren wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing. "Could you tell me about some of your past… missions? Is that what they're called?" He kind of felt like he was asking his parents to tell him the story of how they first met. It felt a bit forced to ask it, but he was sure he'd hear some interesting story. That is, if they would answer that.

Apparently, they would. After Erwin said that yes, they could be called missions or jobs, he and Levi spent the afternoon telling Eren about several of the ones they'd been on together. They didn't always work jobs together, Levi said, though most of the time now they did because they didn't travel as much. But they mostly told Eren about ones they'd worked together, and they told him about funny things that had happened or times when they'd been able to see personally how they helped people. Eren was sure they were picking their stories carefully. They were focusing on the positives – on the time they kept a drug lord from decimating a village in Colombia; on the time they saved a diplomat from being killed in a terrorist attack by preventing the attack completely; on the time they'd hunted down and put an end to a sex trafficking ring in Taiwan. Eren was sure there were gritty details that they were leaving out or brushing over, but he didn't mind. He didn't need to know that stuff. What he needed to know was the way that Erwin and Levi laughed together at jokes they had between them, how they poked fun at the other's actions on a particular mission, how they sighed in fond memory of times they had shared together that Eren could barely begin to comprehend.

He liked hearing these stories. He did. Erwin and Levi were more relaxed and open with him as they were sitting there on the couch than they had ever been around Eren before, save for during or just after sex. It was nice to hear them laughing and that they actually enjoyed the job they so often risked their lives for. But it also made Eren feel like a new friend intruding on two old ones catching up. There were things he would never be able to understand, no matter how honest Erwin and Levi were with him. He had known that before, but until now he'd never felt so… boring. Erwin and Levi had been all over the world, had faced death multiple times and had saved the day more than once. Eren was just a kid who'd gone to college and got a degree and then couldn't find a job to use it for so he'd ended up working at a bookstore. He knew Erwin and Levi would get angry at him if he said it aloud, but he felt like a nobody. He felt so unaccomplished and he was struck by a sudden fear of never being enough for them, of never being interesting enough.

Of course, Eren's carefully blank expression and fake laughs didn't go unnoticed. It was only a matter of time before Levi turned to straddle Eren's hips and get a good look at his face. He was trying to appear happy, but even without being so well trained to read people Levi would have noticed the broken-hearted look in Eren's eyes.

"Eren," Levi said, getting the boy to focus on him. "What is it?" He cupped Eren's cheek with one of his hands, and Eren just turned his face away from it, turned his eyes away from Levi, and stared at the coffee table and his cold cup of coffee.

"It's nothing," Eren said, and when he felt Levi's glare and knew that he'd be berated because it obviously wasn't nothing, he amended, "It's stupid."

Erwin turned in his seat to face the boy and wrapped his other hand around Eren's waist as well as the one already there and held him close from behind, leaning down to place a kiss on Eren's neck. "It's bothering you, so it's not stupid," he said. When Eren still didn't talk, he added, "Please?"

Eren sighed. "It's just…" He still felt it was idiotic to doubt them this way, but he said what he was feeling anyway. He didn't meet Erwin or Levi's eyes the entire time he spoke. "You guys have all this… history, and your lives are so exciting and everything and then it's like… who am I, right? I'm just this boring college graduate who couldn't get a real job."

"You're right," Levi said after a moment. "That is stupid."

"Levi," Erwin said quietly in warning.

"No," Levi said to Erwin. He put a hand on Eren's face and forced the boy to look at him. "We know who you are, Eren, and even if your life is boring, don't you think if we wanted something different we wouldn't be here?" Eren opened his mouth to speak but Levi cut him off. "You knew Erwin and I had a history, and maybe now you know a bit more about it, but that doesn't change how we feel about you. These things that we've told you today, we've never told anybody outside the organization. We went against orders and told you because we didn't want to risk losing you, not to make you feel worse."

"Levi and I may have a past," Erwin added once Levi was finished. "But the three of us have a future, and that's what matters."

Eren looked as if he was seriously considering that for a moment, and then he looked a bit constipated, and then he finally burst out laughing, genuinely confusing and worrying Erwin. Once Eren was laughing, Levi was too, confusing Erwin even more. "Wait, what just happened?" Erwin asked.

Eren managed to catch his breath enough to say, "I can't believe you just said that. That has got to be the cheesiest line I have ever heard!" He then proceeded to crack up again.

"Really, Erwin?" Levi asked, laughing. He lowered his voice to do a poor impression of the larger man. "'Levi and I may have a past, but the three of us have a future.'" He returned to his normal speaking voice to add, "Have you been reading Nicholas Sparks novels in your free time?"

Erwin groaned at being picked on, but he couldn't help but smile as he pulled his two boyfriends to either side of his lap for a hug. Things were okay with them now. Hopefully, they would stay that way.


	6. Chapter 6

Eren got up at eight the next morning. It was a pretty normal time for him to wake up, late enough that it wasn't the ass-crack of dawn like when Erwin woke or mid-afternoon like he'd slept until in college. Levi normally woke around the same time as Erwin, usually a bit later, and joined him at the gym, and by the time Eren would be awake the two of them were often out on business. Their line of work didn't exactly come with steady hours, but Eren assumed they had an office somewhere where they did most of their work, since they certainly didn't bring it home.

So Eren usually woke to an empty house. He was used to it by now, and it actually felt weirder to him when either Erwin or Levi were still home at that time on a weekday, because it threw off his routine. He'd get up, have his first cup of coffee and brush his teeth, go to the gym, come home and shower, get his second cup of coffee and breakfast, then get to work by ten. He'd then work until six and come home – stopping for groceries if they needed them – and make dinner, just for him if Erwin and Levi had told him they'd be out or for the three of them if he thought they'd be home.

Normally when Eren went to the gym – he and his boyfriends had a family membership that they made good use of – he spent the time alone. He went, jogged for a while, lifted some weights so he didn't look like a toothpick next to his built boyfriends, and generally keep to himself. It was good "me" time where he got to listen to his music and get an endorphin high.

Today, though, was different. He had just finished his run on the treadmill and was about to start doing some of the machines when a guy – who was totally built, even more than Erwin – came over to him and asked if he would mind spotting him. Eren didn't really feel like it, but there weren't a lot of people in the gym at this time and he didn't want to leave the guy without a spotter. Besides, he'd seen the guy around here a lot recently at this time, and he normally came with a friend, so he figured it wouldn't become a regular thing.

The guy even confirmed that himself as they walked over to the bench and the guy started loading on weights to the bar. "Normally my friend spots for me, but he decided to try a Pilates class or some shit like that."

"Yeah," Eren said just so there wouldn't be an awkward silence. "I think I've seen you guys around before."

The guy went to lie down on the bench and Eren took his position behind it to spot, though he knew it was most likely just a precaution since this dude could probably lift a house without breaking a sweat. "Yeah," the guy agreed as he started lifting, and he stopped speaking as he did his rep. When he put the bar back on its holders for a rest he continued. "Our friend started teaching a kickboxing class around this time so we just come together and then get breakfast afterwards before Bert and I go to work."

Eren assumed Bert was the tall sweaty guy who was currently trying out a Pilates class. "Where do you work?" Eren asked for the sake of conversation.

"I'm I shift manager at Home Depot," the guy replied. "You know, just out of college with a suck job market. You take what you can get." He started to do another rep, and Eren vaguely paid attention to his job as a spotter.

"Yeah, no, I totally get that," he said as the guy seemed to have no problem lifting the weights. "I just graduated a couple years ago and I'm still working at a bookstore."

The guy put the bar back and sat up. "Where'd you go?"

"Oh, I just went to Trost here in the city."

The guy lit up. "No way! That's where my friends and I went!" He looked closer at Eren and seemed deep in thought for a moment. "Wait," he said with a smile, "Did you take Western Cultures with Davidson?"

Eren thought for a minute. "Um, yeah, I think so?"

"Dude!" the guy exclaimed. "We were totally in the same class!" He slapped Eren on the shoulder. "That's so freaky!"

"Yeah," Eren said. He didn't see it as a huge coincidence. A lot of people from Trost stayed in the city after they graduated, so they were pretty much everywhere. And Western Cultures had been a big lecture class. He mostly just wanted to get back to his exercise.

The guy seemed to notice Eren's disinterest. "Anyways, I'll let you get back to your workout. It was cool meeting you though,…" He trailed off, not having gotten Eren's name yet.

"Eren," the boy supplied when he realized what the guy was waiting for.

He held out a hand. "Reiner." Eren shook it, painfully noticing how tight the guy's grip was. "Well," Reiner said. "I guess I'll see you around, Eren." He then walked off, letting Eren get back to his workout, which would have to be shorter than usual because of the time they'd spent talking. Oh well, he could take an easy day for once, he thought as he put his earbuds back in his ears and resumed the playlist on his phone. At least the guy hadn't seemed creepy. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad knowing somebody at the gym.

Later, during Eren's lunch break at work, Levi visited him. As they walked along the sidewalk to get to the café where Eren sometimes got his lunch if he didn't bring it – and he hadn't had time to make it this morning since he did end up staying at the gym a bit longer than usual, having forgotten that he needed to shorten his workout – he asked where Erwin was.

"Still at work," Levi simply replied.

"Aren't you supposed to be there then?" Eren asked, playfully nudging Levi with his shoulder.

"What, are you that ashamed of me that I'm not allowed to visit you at work?" Levi joked dryly.

Eren just laughed. "Or are you checking up on me since your little spy isn't doing that for you today?" He made sure to keep his tone lighthearted even though he really did think that was the reason Levi was here.

For his part, Levi didn't deny that they'd been keeping him under watch at work. "Aururo won't be hanging around anymore," he said instead. "We said we'd give you more freedom and Hanji berated us for it, so." He ended there, the explanation not really needing to be given.

"Thanks," Eren said, grabbing Levi's hand to hold as they walked down the street. "Really."

Eren thought he saw Levi smile a bit as the man nudged Eren with his shoulder as the younger had just recently done to him. They got to the café and got their sandwiches and coffee. Levi paid, of course; Levi and Erwin always insisted on paying whenever they went out together, since they made far more money than Eren, even though Eren still tried to not just freeload off of them. He knew they wouldn't mind if he wanted to, but Eren had pride and he wasn't a mooch. That's why he worked his minimum-wage job in the first place.

He and Levi spent Eren's lunch hour talking about random things and definitely not playing footsie under the table. When Levi asked how Eren's day had been, he didn't even think to mention Reiner. Maybe if Levi and Erwin were still keeping such tight tabs on him he might have thought about it, but it didn't really seem that important. So instead he complained about customers who come in and ask for a book whose title they don't know "but it's blue and it's got this thing on the cover." Levi laughed and then scolded Eren for being messy while he ate. Eren retaliated by being even messier.

Once Eren's lunch hour was nearly up, Levi walked Eren back to the store and left him with a kiss. Eren tried not to notice how Levi surreptitiously checked the surroundings for anything out of place and instead went to clock back in, ready for four more hours of finding books for people based on vague descriptions.


	7. Chapter 7

A couple of weeks later was Eren's birthday, and though he usually slept in later on weekends, he was woken at eight a.m. sharp by his phone ringing loudly on the bedside table. Levi, who was still sleeping beside him, groaned at the noise and reached for the phone, but thankfully Eren was able to get to it first. He was sure that if Levi were to get to it he would need a new phone and they would have to a repair a hole in the wall. But Eren had managed to get to his phone first and he crawled out of bed as he answered it and headed into the kitchen so he wouldn't disturb Levi any further.

Armin was the one who was calling, but as soon as he took the call Eren was bombarded by both his and Mikasa's voices calling out, "Happy Birthday!"

He laughed as he closed the bedroom door behind him and he waved to Erwin, who was sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the paper. "Hi guys," he told his two best friends in response. "Did you have to call quite so early?" As he was talking Erwin motioned him over and he went to the man, who then pulled him down for a quick kiss and a whispered, "Happy Birthday" before he let Eren go to finish with his call. Eren tucked the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he got himself a cup of coffee.

"Of course we did!" Armin said in response to Eren's complaint, way too cheery for this time of morning even though he and Mikasa have always been morning people. "We're spending the day together, remember?"

"Yes, I remember," Eren said. He took a sip of his coffee before he continued. "I just didn't realize the day would begin quite so early."

"This is when you normally wake up during the week though, isn't it?" Mikasa asked.

"Keywords: during the week," Eren said as he took his coffee into the living room so he wouldn't disturb Erwin from his reading. He plopped down on the sofa and drank some more coffee.

"Oh come on," Armin complained. "It's your birthday, and we never see you anymore." It was true. The last time Eren had seen Armin was over a week ago, and for Mikasa it had been almost a week.

"It's not my fault you guys chose to do so much work," Eren responded jokingly. He could imagine Armin sticking out his tongue on the other end of the line.

"Anyways," Mikasa cut in, getting them back on subject. "We're coming over in half an hour. We figured we'd call to wake you up just in case." Eren knew they were also calling because Eren had told them that Erwin and Levi "were just kind of weird" and liked people to let them know ahead of time when they were coming over, but they had had enough arguments about how little they know about Erwin and Levi and their "quirks" that they just tended to avoid talking about that now.

"Okay," Eren said. "I need to shower and stuff then. See ya." After Armin and Mikasa said their goodbyes, Eren hung up and quickly downed the rest of the coffee. As he went to go put his mug in the sink, he leaned over Erwin's shoulder to give him a proper good morning kiss. At least Erwin wasn't as picky about morning breath as Levi.

When he pulled back to finally put away his dirty mug, Erwin asked, "Armin and Mikasa?"

"Yeah, they're coming over soon," he said, walking back over to Erwin. "I told you I was spending the day with them, right?"

"You did," Erwin responded, grabbing Eren's hand and pulling him closer. "But we get you tonight, correct?"

Eren felt a shiver run through his spine at the tone Erwin used for his question and suddenly he couldn't wait until nighttime. He didn't exactly trust his voice not to waver in anticipation, so he just bit his lip and nodded.

He didn't miss Erwin's smirk at the reaction he'd caused as he said, "Good."

Erwin pulled Eren in for another kiss that Eren eventually had to break by saying, "I need to shower before they get here." He would love to just sit around all day making out with his boyfriends – and more, of course – but he also wanted to spend the day with Armin and Mikasa and he was sure there'd be plenty more of this later that night. So with a final peck he pulled away from Erwin and went to take his shower.

By the time he was showered and dressed, Levi was up as well. When he first woke, Levi just strode part Eren into the bathroom and shut the door, but Eren knew Levi well enough not to be offended by being ignored. Levi never talked to anyone until he brushed his teeth in the morning. As soon as Levi left the bathroom, however, Eren found himself pinned against the bedroom wall with Levi's tongue in his mouth. He had been in the middle of getting dressed and only had one of his arms in the sleeves of his shirt, but he didn't really mind as long as Levi was kissing him. Eventually the older man pulled away, however, knowing that Eren had been in the middle of getting ready, and told him, "Happy Birthday," before he left to presumably get his cup of coffee.

Eren had just finished getting dressed when he heard a knock at the door. This time, neither Erwin nor Levi moved from their spots in the kitchen because they knew it was just Eren's friends and most likely not anyone dangerous. Eren rushed to the front door to greet them, checking through the peephole before undoing the locks just to be safe, like Erwin and Levi asked him to always do, and as soon as he opened the door he was crushed between his two friends' hugs. He didn't mind though, and even attempted to return them. Armin and Mikasa repeatedly wished Eren a Happy Birthday until Eren complained that he wasn't able to breath because of how tight they were holding him. What was it with his friends and their hugs of death?

"I haven't had a chance to eat yet," Eren said once he was free. "So if you don't mind-"

"No!" Armin interjected. "That's good! Because the first stop on Eren's Birthday Tour is…" He paused and started a drumroll on his pants leg to build the anticipation, which Eren promptly broke.

"Are we going to IHOP?!" He asked excitedly.

"We're going to IHOP!" Armin confirmed.

Now Eren was really excited. IHOP was Eren's favorite breakfast restaurant – wasn't it everybody's? – and whenever he went he would order the most nauseatingly-sweet, sugar-filled breakfast concoction the restaurant had. For that very reason both his friends and his boyfriends kept him from going there too often. His loved ones did not want to see him rot all his teeth or get diabetes. But they let him go on special occasions, such as his birthday. "Just let me get his things," he said quickly as he turned to run to the bedroom to get his wallet and phone. He returned more slowly as he put the items in his jeans pockets, and when he got back to the living room Levi and Erwin had joined Mikasa and Armin.

This was always a little awkward, but at least they weren't staying. One time Eren had invited his two friends over for dinner with him and his boyfriends, and things got a little bit tense. There may have been half and hour of near-silence interspersed by Eren clearing his throat and offering a failing start to a conversation. Things were always a little weird between his friends and his boyfriends. Armin and Mikasa were the only ones to have ever come over to the apartment, the rest staying away thanks to Eren's not-really-a-lie about Levi being a neat freak and picky about guests. Most of his other friends hadn't even met the two. Needless to say, Armin and Mikasa were always a little wary about Eren's boyfriends, especially when he could only give vague answers to questions like, "So where do they work?" ("Um… the government.")

They were just finishing up the cursory hellos as Eren came back in the room. He checked to make sure he had all of his things before turning to his lovers and saying, "Well, I'll be going." He was excited for IHOP and he didn't want any current awkwardness to last very long.

He kissed Erwin first, and then Levi, both just chastely because his two friends – and honestly they were more like family – were in the room. Erwin said, "Have fun," and Levi said, "Be back by six; we have a reservation." He didn't specify where the reservation was to, and Eren was curious, but he knew that if Levi had wanted Eren to know where they were having dinner he would have said the name of the restaurant, so he didn't bother asking. Instead, he just said goodbye and grabbed one of each of his best friends' hands and pulled the two out into the hallway and to the elevator so they could get going to IHOP.

Since they knew Eren would stuff himself to the point of feeling sick at IHOP, Armin and Mikasa had planned for them to go to the showing of the new superhero movie that had just come out right after their leisurely brunch. Eren made comments through the whole movie, as per usual, and Armin tried not to shush him too many times because it was his birthday, but the three of them were never very good at going to movies together. Eren would say any comment that just happened to come to mind, Mikasa would complain about how "that would never actually happen," and Armin would spend the whole time shushing the two. It was always exasperating for the three of them, but they never learned, and they still went to the movies together. It was just what friends did.

After the movie, they wandered around the mall window-shopping. Or rather, it was mostly window-shopping, until the three of them went into GameStop and Armin and Mikasa bought Eren the game he'd been lusting after for the past month as his birthday present. There were sufficient hugs and "Happy Birthdays" to go around, and when they finally made to exit the store, they ran into somebody Eren knew.

Reiner and Bert – Reiner had introduced them the day after they'd met, saying that Bert had gone to Trost, too – had just walked in the store with a small, kind of angry-looking blonde girl. He and Reiner had had a few conversations over the past couple of weeks at the gym. Bert would join in too sometimes, but he was always pretty quiet. But apparently Bert was sticking with the Pilates class – Eren could not imagine that giant doing something like that, but to each their own – so Eren had said that he'd spot for Reiner the two days a week Bert wouldn't be there. Reiner spotted for Eren in return. It was a nice arrangement. As soon as Eren noticed the three enter the store, Reiner noticed Eren.

"Eren!" he exclaimed, coming over. "It's so weird running into you here, man. Buying some games?"

Eren could tell Mikasa and Armin were shooting him curious looks, but he figured it would be easiest to explain it to them later. "Um, kinda," he responded. "My friends were buying me a birthday present."

"No way!" Reiner said. "It's your birthday! That's awesome, man!"

"Yeah," Eren responded, weakly. Reiner was a really enthusiastic person and sometimes it was a little overwhelming. He could tell Bert felt the same way, if the way the taller guy was sort of curled in on himself next to the blond man was any indication. The girl who was with them didn't seem to be paying any attention at all, instead inspecting an Xbox game.

"Yo," Reiner said suddenly. "There's a Jamba Juice next door. Let me buy you a birthday smoothie."

"Um," Eren said, looking at Armin and Mikasa, who were still being left out. "You really don't have to do that."

"Aw, come on," Reiner said, clapping a hand on Eren's back. "I'll buy for your friends too. It's no prob."

Eren glanced at Armin and Mikasa and shrugged, silently asking, "Why not?" and the two shrugged in agreement, so Eren turned back to Reiner and said, "Ok. Thanks."

The three of them headed next door to the Jamba Juice and waited in line together. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin each ordered something small and cheap because Reiner was buying, and after Reiner paid they all went to sit down while they waited. They had to push two tables together to fit them all, but it wasn't really a problem. Eren realized once they were sitting that he hadn't introduced his friends. "Oh, um, Reiner, these are my friends Armin and Mikasa. Armin and Mikasa, this is Reiner, Bert, and…" He trailed off, realizing he didn't know the girl's name.

"Annie," the girl added, still looking as bored as ever.

"Yeah. Um, I met Bert and Reiner at the gym. They go at the same time that I do, and they also just graduated from Trost a few years ago." He looked to Reiner. "Armin and Mikasa went to Trost, too."

"Oh, cool," Reiner said. "Nice to meet you guys." He extended a hand that they each shook – Armin wincing a bit at the grip but Mikasa not batting an eye – and then their drinks were ready. Reiner went to get them and bring them back to the table.

Things became more comfortable as they sat and drank their smoothies. Reiner asked Armin and Mikasa about their jobs, and about med school when he found out Armin was going. Armin and Mikasa asked about the three of them and what they did for a living and what they had majored in during college and such. It was much less awkward than Eren had feared it would be. They ended up staying in the Jamba Juice for almost an hour just talking even once they had finished their drinks.

Eventually, though, Reiner looked at his watch and said that the three of them had to get going. They said their goodbyes and it-was-nice-to-meet-yous and Happy Birthdays and went their separate ways, Eren and his friends off to get back on schedule for his birthday celebration.

The rest of the day with Armin and Mikasa was wonderful. The three of them went to the boardwalk even though it was still pretty chilly out for many people to be there, and there were even some shops that weren't open yet. But the cold weather didn't stop Eren from dragging his friends down to the beach and putting his feet in the freezing cold water. He didn't care if he'd get sick – he loved the ocean. Armin and Mikasa allowed him to keep his feet in for a few minutes but eventually dragged him back out. They spent the rest of the afternoon just walking around, sharing a cotton candy and catching up.

Eventually, however, their time came to a close and they piled back into Armin's car and drove Eren back to the apartment so he wouldn't be late for dinner with his boyfriends. Armin and Mikasa each gave Eren a long hug before he went up to the apartment and they all promised they'd be better about finding time to hand out from now on.

Eren got back to the apartment at 5:55, since they'd hit less traffic coming back than they had expected. When he entered, he didn't see Erwin or Levi, so he assumed they were in the bedroom. He left the bag with the game Armin and Mikasa had gotten him on the living room coffee table and headed back to the bedroom where he found his boyfriends almost finished putting on suits. Eren nearly started drooling. Damn, they looked so good in suits. It didn't help that each of the suits was perfectly tailored and probably cost more than Eren earned in a month. He had to bite his lip to keep from groaning at the sight of them: Erwin putting on his cufflinks, Levi adjusting his tie.

And they knew what it did to Eren, also. When they turned to look at Eren, Erwin got this cocky grin and Levi got this little smirk, and God Eren hated them and their attractive bodies in attractive suits. He glared at them and managed to stop staring at how great Erwin's ass looked in those pants as he walked through the room to the closet. "So I'm guessing we're dressing up for dinner, or are you just wearing that because you're both cocky bastards?" Eren asked.

He was stopped from going into the closet by Erwin's arm around his waist. "Can't it be both?" he murmured into Eren's ear before turning him away from the closet. "We already got your suit out."

Eren then saw that Erwin was correct and his suit was already lying on the bed, ready for him to put on. It had been one of the first things Erwin and Levi had gotten him when they started going out, because they kept wanting to take him to fancy restaurants but got frustrated at his ill-fitting formal clothes. And Eren had to admit, the tailored suit they'd gotten him did make him look really hot, so even though he generally objected to the two of them spending loads of money on him, the suit was something he'd allowed. It felt good knowing that they felt the same way about him in a suit as he felt about them dressed up. And they had proven that they each loved how the others looked dressed up. Multiple times. They had ruined a couple of good silk ties that way.

Eren got dressed in his suit, Erwin tying his tie even though he was perfectly capable of doing it himself, as he told his boyfriends about his day. He told them about gorging himself at IHOP and the movie and Armin and Mikasa buying him that game he'd been telling them about – not that they really had any idea about what it was – as a present, and about running into some friends and then going to the boardwalk and wandering around. Erwin and Levi only 'tsk'ed a bit when he told them about going down to the water, not scolding him further because it was his birthday.

By the time he'd finished telling them about how he'd spent his day, the three of them had gotten into the car and made it to the restaurant. It was called "Zhinganshina's" and was a high class Asian-Fusion restaurant. Levi told the hostess about their reservation and they were immediately ushered to a table that was a bit blocked off from the others, so it was a tiny bit more private. They always preferred to get more private tables if possible, for multiple reasons including that they didn't exactly like the stares of people who guessed at their relationship and thought that it was wrong.

Dinner was fucking fantastic, to the point where Levi had to remind Eren, "Don't sound like you're actually fucking cumming," after the moan he'd made when he first tasted his entrée. They each stole bites from the others' plates and Eren practically ate himself into his second food coma of the day. He didn't usually like to feel fat compared to Erwin and Levi, but on his birthday he made an exception.

When the waitress asked them if they'd like to see the dessert menu, Erwin graciously declined, earning him a curious look from Eren. He may have eaten himself into a food coma, but that didn't mean he didn't want birthday cake. Erwin just smiled at him and said, "We have cake at home." They probably went to some fancy bakery and got it, not that Eren minded. He would have time to digest on the way home, then, too.

As soon as they got home, Eren flopped onto the couch in the living room. Levi complained about him getting the place dirty as he took the boy's shoes off for him so he wouldn't get them on the couch and Eren just muttered into the cushions about being too tired to move.

"Does that mean you don't want cake or your presents then?" Erwin asked.

Eren shot straight up. "Cake?" he asked, even though he already knew there was cake here. "Presents?"

Erwin and Levi chuckled at him and led him into the kitchen and sat him at the table. Levi went to the fridge and got out the cake while Erwin got plates and forks.

"Do we need the fucking candles and singing?" Levi asked Eren right as he was about to cut the cake.

"Nope, just cake," Eren confirmed. Levi cut three small slices of what looked like a very rich chocolate cake and put them each on a plate that Erwin brought to the table. He set the first one in front of Eren and put one out for Levi and saved the last for himself. Eren didn't wait for his boyfriends to sit down before he was digging in.

Erwin and Levi just chuckled at him as they more tactfully at their own slices. Soon enough Eren was stretching back in his seat after putting his plate in the sink and asking again, "Presents?"

Erwin told Eren to wait there and he went into the bedroom. A minute later he came back with a small wrapped box. He set it before Eren and then sat back down. With both he and Levi watching him, Eren slowly opened the box and looked inside.

"A pocket watch?" he said, confused. Yeah, it was kind of cool and probably expensive, but it looked old and a bit tarnished and-

Eren nearly dropped the watch onto the table when he flipped it and saw the other side. He knew this watch. His mother had shown it to him plenty of times when he was younger. It had been her father's, and it had his initials engraved on the back. She had told him that when he was older it would be his. But it shouldn't be here; it shouldn't even exist.

Eren's hand clutched around the watch and he didn't breathe for a minute as he just blinked at the watch in his grip. "How-" he began, but his voice got caught in his throat. "This…" he started again, trying his hardest not to cry. "This burned. You… you can't have gotten this…"

Suddenly Levi's hands were around his trembling grip. "Eren," he said, trying to ground him. "It's the real thing. We found it for you."

Erwin was behind Eren then, gently rubbing his back. "You told us how important it had been. We thought you'd like it."

Eren then realized that his crying and reaction may have been a bit misleading and he broke his stare from his hand to look at Levi, since Erwin was behind him and he'd have to crane his neck. "No!" he said. "I do like it. Really. I just…" he looked back down at his hand, which he pulled away from Levi's and opened so he could look at the watch again. "I never thought I'd see it again."

Erwin wrapped his arms around Eren and kissed his head. "Well, you have it now. Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Eren said, wiping his tears. "I'm… thank you. Really." He turned his face to press a kiss to Erwin's arm and then pulled Levi in to gently kiss him as well. "I love you guys."

"We love you, too," Erwin assured him before letting go and standing. Eren looked up when he heard a chair scrape and saw Levi standing as well.

"Where are you-" Eren started to ask, but he was cut off by Erwin's dazzling smile.

"We said presents, right?" he asked, emphasizing the plural.

"No," Eren protested. "Really, this is more than enough. I can't-"

Levi pressed his lips to Eren's to shut him up. "Eren," he murmured, keeping his face close. "Just let us do this, ok?"

Eren pouted but nodded, and he started to stand when Levi pulled away and he and Erwin started for the bedroom, intending to follow. However, Erwin stopped him with a hand on his chest, pushing him back to the chair.

"Stay there," he said. "We need to prepare it." He winked and turned away, ushering Levi into the bedroom and leaving Eren to wonder what the hell he was in for.

It was almost ten minutes later and after some muffled argument from the bedroom that Erwin finally opened the door. He was still wearing his suit, though he'd taken off the jacket and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, but Eren couldn't imagine that was all that was different and had taken so long. Erwin was blocking Eren's view into the room, though, and he just smiled at Eren and held out a hand, prompting the younger to come to him. He did so, and Erwin led him into the room and holy shitballs.

Levi was leaning against one of the posts at the end of the bed, but what was surprising was what he was wearing. He was clad entirely in red and black, from his red heels to his black stockings to his red panties and garter and a short black corset lined in red. Eren was pretty positive his brain short-circuited. Levi walked – strutted, Eren's mind amended – over to Eren and raised a hand to close Eren's jaw. "You're drooling, brat," he said, looking annoyed though Eren knew on the inside he was smirking.

Eren tried to think of a witty comeback, but his mind was still trying to process the image of Levi in lingerie, and what came out was more along the lines of, "You- you're…"

Erwin pressed up behind Eren and soothed his hands down the younger's arms. He leaned down to Eren's ear and asked, "Isn't he sexy?" before he started nibbling at Eren's earlobe.

Suppressing a moan, Eren forced his eyes away from Levi and pulled Erwin down into a kiss. When he pulled away, he asked, "Why aren't you dressed up, though?"

That certainly surprised Erwin, and the man just blinked for a moment. "I, um…" Erwin was not someone often at a loss for words, which goes to show how taken aback he was. "I didn't know you'd want me to…"

Eren smiled and brought Erwin into another kiss, saying, "It's ok. Another time then," when he pulled back.

Levi cleared his throat to get Eren's attention back on him. The heels were already hurting his feet so he'd like to move this to the bed as quickly as possible. Eren pulled away from Erwin and put his hands on Levi's cinched waist, running them up and down the corset before moving in to catch the man's lips with his own. He didn't stop feeling the man up as they kissed, and Eren walked them to the bed until he could sit and have Levi straddle his legs. He couldn't tell how long they kissed, but in the meantime Erwin had climbed behind Eren and latched onto his throat as he began to take off Eren's shirt and tie. Eren was caught up in the kiss and Erwin's mouth on his throat right up until a hand undid his belt and pants and reached in to slowly stroke his growing erection, at which point Eren pulled away from Levi's mouth to moan loudly. Levi (unfortunately) had to get off of Eren's lap to help pull the boy's pants and underwear down as Erwin removed his button-down and undershirt, leaving Eren completely naked.

Eren had gotten caught up in staring at Levi's outfit again and he didn't notice that Erwin had moved from behind him until Levi pushed at Eren's chest and he fell back to the bed. Eren squirmed to get better situated fully on the bed and Levi followed him on his knees, grinding down onto Eren's lap when they finally got to the center of the bed. He bucked up into Levi's lap in return and searched for Erwin, finding the man undressing at the edge of the bed. He didn't miss how the man left his tie on the bed while the rest of his clothes found their way to the floor.

There was no way he could have missed it, either, when Levi reached over and grabbed it, straightening it out before grabbing Eren's hands and moving them above his head to tie them to the headboard. Eren whined a bit. He wanted to be able to touch, especially with Levi in that outfit.

But Levi just chuckled and leaned down so his lips were barely brushing against Eren's. "We're the ones taking care of you tonight, Eren," he whispered. "We just want to make sure you're lying back and relaxing."

Eren gave him a look that told Levi he knew just how big a load of bullshit that was and that he knew they were just doing this to frustrate him, but he didn't openly complain, because even though it was frustrating, it was always hot when they did this.

Levi started trailing a line of kisses down Eren's chest as Erwin got on the bed and kneeled behind him. Erwin pulled Levi up so Levi's back was pressed against Erwin's chest and he leaned down to suck marks on the man's neck like he had done with Eren earlier. He felt Levi up as he did so, making the man moan and making Eren groan in frustration as he bucked his hips up to at least try to rub against Levi but was unable. Erwin and Levi made sure to put on a bit of a show as Erwin undid the straps of the garter and slid the red silk panties down Levi's thighs. Levi leaned forward to kiss Eren so that Erwin was able to slide the panties fully off and rebuckle the garter straps before sitting up again and leaning back into Erwin's chest. Erwin was already prepared with the lube at his side and he slicked up his fingers before giving Levi's hard member a couple of strokes and sliding his fingers down to the man's hole. He made sure to thoroughly prepare Levi and Levi made sure to make plenty of noises just to drive Eren crazy.

Just as Eren was beginning to openly complain that, "This isn't fair guys, come on, please already, just-" Erwin slid his fingers out of Levi and moved them to Eren's cock, giving it a few good strokes to get it slick before he helped Levi get in position above it. Eren absently noticed that Levi must have taken off his heels before getting on the bed and then he was pressing into Levi and trying very hard not to just buck his hips into the tight heat as Levi so slowly took him in. It was especially hard to keep still once Levi was fully seated, but he knew the man needed time to adjust so he just moved to run his hand through Levi's hair and was reminded of his inability to do so.

Even after he was fully adjusted, Levi didn't start moving. Instead, he just shifted forward a tiny bit so that Erwin behind him was able to spread Eren's legs. Eren began staring at the ceiling and muttering various things about "God" and "Fuck" and "Shit" as Erwin started stretching Eren just as he had done for Levi. It was a bit more awkward because of the position but Eren couldn't mind less and was instead begging Erwin to "come on just do it please" until Erwin finally deemed him ready and shifted so that Eren's hips were practically on his thighs and Levi was leaning forward, sucking at Eren's collarbone, and Erwin finally pressed in.

Eren stretched out the word "fuck" in a groan that lasted until Erwin was pressed in as much as he could get in the position, and it didn't take him long to try to move and start begging his two lovers when he realized it was difficult for him to do so in that position. At least now Erwin and Levi indulged him, Levi finally lifting up and pressing back down, causing Eren to shift of Erwin's dick. They got into a rhythm that made Eren feel like he was going to fucking die it felt so good and he was so pissed that he couldn't touch either of his boyfriends, even though he could see Levi's hard dick bobbing there untouched and he wanted nothing less than to just wrap his hand around it and make the man come.

In the end, Eren came first. There was no way he could have lasted very long with the dual sensations. As Eren was shouting out his completion, Erwin wrapped a hand around Levi's dick to stroke him, and the two of them weren't far behind. They laid in a sticky mess for a minute, catching their breaths, before Erwin reached up to untie Eren's hands, he and Levi each taking an arm and gently massaging the feeling back into it at Eren lay sated. They lay there for a few more minutes after that until Levi finally sat up.

"Ok, I'm getting out of this fucking thing," he said, trying to reach behind him to undo the corset strings. When he wasn't able to get them himself, he looked over his shoulder and snapped, "Erwin. Help me with these damn strings. You're the one who tied them so tight."

Erwin started to sit up but Eren gently pushed him back with a hand and sat up himself, saying, "Let me." He hadn't been able to touch during sex, so he might as well touch after, even though he was quite tired and eager to sleep. He undid the corset for Levi and planted a kiss on his shoulder blades, and before he was able to lie back down Levi turned and caught his lips with his own.

After a chaste kiss, Levi muttered, "Hope you enjoyed your birthday, brat," and stood and went to the bathroom.

Even though Levi was halfway to the bathroom before Eren comprehended the sentence, he quietly responded, "I did," as he leaned back into Erwin's arms. He turned so he was facing Erwin's chest and reached up to give him a quick kiss as well. "Thank you for my presents," he said as he cuddled into Erwin's chest, getting ready to fall asleep. "Tell Levi thanks, too. He's going to be in there forever and I'm going to sleep." The last thing Eren heard before closing his eyes was Erwin's deep chuckle, and he felt a kiss pressed to the top of his head as he used his boyfriend's chest for a pillow as he at last fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Eren's life fell into a routine the next few weeks. He'd go to the gym and work during the week, relax on the weekends. Only once did he have to stay up until two in the morning when Erwin and Levi went on a mission, but they came back without even a scratch. He'd skipped going to the gym the next day because he was tired, but he didn't mind much.

One night Levi had to work late – they assured Eren it wasn't a mission, so nothing dangerous – Erwin and Eren had a nice dinner out that ended with them making out as they undressed each other on the way to the bedroom and Eren riding Erwin until his thighs burned. At least Erwin didn't call Eren weak when he ran out of energy while riding him, like Levi would have done. Levi was pretty annoyed to find that he had missed out, though. Eren gave him an apology blowjob. He was pretty sure Erwin did the same later.

Eren continued to see Reiner at the gym every time he went, and every day but Mondays and Thursdays he'd see Bert, too. He still couldn't imagine that man doing Pilates. Sometimes he'd see Annie coming out of the kickboxing class she taught. Eren mostly talked with Reiner, and a little bit with Bert. He didn't see Annie enough to talk to her more than a couple of times.

But one Thursday as Eren was finishing lifting weights with Reiner spotting him, Reiner asked him if he'd like to join the three of them for breakfast after their workout.

Eren was a bit taken aback. "Um…" he said. "Maybe some other time? I don't have my stuff to shower with me so I'd have to go home first, and all that. Sorry." He was also just getting some bad vibes. Reiner and his friends were cool, but Eren thought that he might not know him well enough to be comfortable going out with them. It was one thing when he'd had Armin and Mikasa there with him, but… he just wasn't sure about this.

Reiner smiled, but Eren thought it might have been a bit strained. That was odd. Eren was even gladder that he'd decided not to go now. There was something going on. He just couldn't figure out what. "No problem, bro," he replied, slapping Eren's arm. "Another time."

Eren nodded and went to finish his workout and Reiner left to go shower before going to get breakfast with his friends. Well, at least Reiner hadn't pushed the issue. Maybe he was just socially awkward when it came to rejection? Wait, he hadn't been flirting with Eren, had he? He hadn't ever mentioned his boyfriends – he tended to save that until he knew people pretty well, if only because some people got weird when they heard Eren was not only gay but polyamorous as well. So maybe he had been reading the situation wrong and Reiner had been flirting with him? But why would he ask him to have breakfast with his friends too then? The three of them – or at least Reiner and Bert – had seem pretty damn close. Eren didn't know. He was just glad that he'd turned him down, because there had definitely been something weird going on there. Even if it was just flirting, it would be something he'd probably have to address. He wasn't really looking forward to that. He had hoped this would just be a simple gym-buddy relationship. They didn't even need to be actual friends, just gym buddies who spot each other and ask generic questions about how life's going.

He only stayed another ten minutes or so before he got his things from the locker room and went out to his car. It was miserable and raining out, so he tried to hurry, not having brought an umbrella with him.

He was walking to his car when he felt an arm drape across his shoulders and something hard press into the side of his ribs.

"Wha-?" he started, turning his head to see that Reiner was the one holding him, but the man cut him off.

"Shh," he said. "I'd be quiet if I were you, Eren." Eren felt whatever was pressing against his ribs jab harder, and he came to the sinking realization that he was being held at gunpoint. He looked around, for help maybe, to see that Bert and Annie were following close behind and that the parking lot was unfortunately empty. "We're going to go for a little walk," Reiner said, leading Eren towards an alleyway. Eren followed. He was too shocked to do anything else.

When he saw the car parked in the alley with the trunk open, though, he realized just what was going on and that he needed to get out. He quickly grabbed the gun and directed it away from his body while trying to get out from under Reiner's arm.

Immediately after he did that, though, he was punched in the face and found himself fallen on the ground. He started to call for help, but a hand was placed over his mouth as someone else's held his arms down and sat on his legs so he couldn't move them. He did the only thing he could at that moment – he bit the hand covering his mouth.

"Shit!" Annie shouted, taking her now-bleeding hand away from Eren's mouth for a second before remembering what she was doing and pressing it back down. Eren bit her again, and she cursed once more, but called, "Fuck, Reiner get the damn duct tape!" Eren kept biting her as he tried to flail his limbs and get the person sitting on him off, but Bert was much bigger than him and impossible to shake. A minute later, Annie ripped her hand out of Eren's teeth – he had torn off a good portion of skin at least, even if it tasted absolutely terrible as he spat it out onto the pavement – and a piece of duct tape was secured over his lips, muffling his cries.

Next, a zip tie was tightened around his ankles and he was maneuvered onto his back so that his hands could be zip-tied behind him as well. Eren knew at this point his chance of escape was slim to none, but that wouldn't stop him from fighting. He tried his hardest to kick at his kidnappers and squirm out of their grip when they picked him up, but it was to no avail. He was pushed into the trunk of the car and the boot was closed, leaving him in complete darkness. He heard the car doors slamming shut and the engine turn on, and then they were moving.


	9. Chapter 9

When he and Erwin came home to find the apartment empty, Levi didn't want to immediately start worrying. This happened sometimes, if Eren had to stay a bit late at work or if he needed to get groceries or if traffic was particularly bad coming home. There were plenty of innocent reasons why Levi and Erwin would get home before him. Usually Eren would text to let them know, but it was understandable that he wouldn't be able to if he didn't have a chance at work or was in the middle of driving. So there was no need to worry. It just meant that they'd probably end up ordering pizza or Chinese for dinner, because when Levi checked the refrigerator there wasn't a whole lot of food in there – so Eren was probably just at the grocery store, he presumed – and they'd probably be too lazy to cook a late dinner after Eren got home. He probably had a long day and would be tired, which is probably why he didn't text.

Everything was fine, Levi told himself. He told Erwin, too.

When seven o'clock came and they still had no word from Eren, Levi and Erwin agreed that it couldn't hurt to text Eren and find out what's up. They just had to word it so they didn't sound like they were freaking out – although they were – or nagging. It took them a couple of minutes, but they eventually decided on sending a message that said: Are you at the grocery store? Don't worry about dinner tonight, we'll order something. Chinese sound good?

Eren still hadn't replied twenty minutes later, and Levi and Erwin decided they were allowed to start freaking out. They tried calling his cell a couple of times but their calls went straight to voicemail. They decided that at this point it wouldn't be that abnormal to call the bookstore where Eren worked to see if maybe he had gotten caught up there. Even if it would be strange, they would have done it anyway. They decided that Erwin would make the call, since Levi was less able to keep his cool and was already snapping even at Erwin. They didn't want to scare Eren's boss.

They looked up the number to the store online and Erwin called, putting the phone on speaker.

The line was picked up after just a couple of rings. "Hi, Stohess Books, how can I help you?"

"Hi," Erwin said, and Levi glared at him for taking so long getting the point because of stupid formalities. "I was just wondering if Eren Jeager was still at the store, working late perhaps?"

The man on the other end hummed in consideration. "And who is this?" he finally asked.

"My apologies, this is his boyfriend speaking."

"I see," said the man, who Erwin presumed – and hoped – was a manager. "Well, unfortunately Eren isn't here. In fact, he didn't show up for his shift today at all."

Erwin nearly dropped the phone. Both he and Levi were frozen in shock for the next minute until Erwin was roused by a "Hello? Are you still there?" coming from the phone.

Still in shock, he lifted the phone to his ear and said, voice dead, "Yes. Thank you for letting me know." Then he hung up.

They didn't know what to do then. They immediately thought the worst, but even thinking that they had no leads as to what actually happened. The two found themselves sitting, unmoving, on the living room couch just staring at the wall. This wasn't like them. They always knew what to do, always had a plan. They had thought through plenty of times what would happen if something happened to Eren, if he got taken or worse. But the reality of it froze them to the bone.

Ten minutes later Levi had an idea. He pulled out his phone and searched through his contacts for Eren's sister, Mikasa. Maybe for some reason Eren was with her or Armin. It was a long shot, but it was still a shot. Levi stood and paced around the living room as he waited for the phone to dial, ignoring Erwin's questioning looks.

Finally the girl picked up. Unlike Erwin, Levi wasted no time with formalities. "Mikasa," he said, trying not to sound quite as worried as he was, though his tone was still sharper than usual. "Have you heard from Eren today?"

Levi could practically feel the girl's sudden worry and curiosity on the other end of the line. "No…" she said. "Why? What-"

He didn't wait to hear the rest of Mikasa's questions. He just hung up and threw his phone at the wall. The screen of the phone cracked and there was now a dent in the drywall, but that was the least of their worries.

Erwin let Levi pace for a while as he sat on the couch, head in his hands. He felt useless. He felt stupid and pathetic and like there was so much more they could be doing right now to find Eren but they just couldn't think of anything. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Did Eren go to the gym this morning?"

Levi stopped pacing and stared at Erwin for a moment before heading to the door and shoving on his shoes, not bothering to give an answer. Erwin was right behind him, but Levi stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"You stay. If he comes back…"

Erwin wasn't very happy about it, but he nodded and sat back down. Levi finished putting on his shoes and grabbed his keys and was gone.

Normally it took fifteen minutes to drive to the gym. Levi and Erwin had chosen one that wasn't very close to the apartment so it was slightly less obvious. But apparently they were still tracked there. With Levi driving, he made it there in six minutes. He was honked at a fair number of times and he probably tripped a few red light cameras, but none of that was important.

What was important was Eren's car in the parking lot. Levi parked next to it and walked around the car, looking inside for any clues as to where Eren had gone. There was nothing.

After finding nothing by the car, Levi looked around the rest of the parking lot, desperate for some sort of hint. He saw a security camera covering the gym doors. He'd get the tapes to that once the gym closed for the night.

He tried to think of what he would do if he were trying to abduct someone from the gym. It seemed the most likely option at this point. If Eren had been killed by accident it would have been on the news and if it were on purpose the killer would have called by now. He was frustrated that the kidnappers hadn't called yet either though. Why wouldn't they call right away? Unless they were trying to get any information out of Eren that they could first. That wouldn't be good. Whoever it was wouldn't be happy that Eren didn't know anything.

But Levi needed to concentrate. If he were kidnapping someone… it was an open space, which made it a lot harder to take someone without anybody noticing. If they could manage to get them in front of it, there was an alleyway at the other end of the lot… It was really the only feasible place. Levi headed over to it. He used his phone as a flashlight, but he didn't find much. A bunch of trash, some tire marks but that didn't necessarily mean anything; somebody could have tried to use it as a cut-through to the parking lot from the opposite road. But then there was a bloodstain on the ground. Well, finding a bloodstain in an alley wasn't really anything weird, but there was something with it. Levi looked at it closer, almost touching it, but when he realized what it was he sure was glad he didn't.

It was a small chunk of skin, roughly an inch by an inch and a half. It looked like it had been ripped from somebody. Levi felt a sinking feeling when he realized that it very well could be Eren's skin. He couldn't tell the exact shade of the swatch since it had been covered in blood and it looked like it had been left here a while. He hoped to God that this had nothing to do with Eren, but he had a bad feeling about it.

Without anything more than that, though, there wasn't anything else for Levi to do here. He'd have to wait a few more hours until the gym was closed to get a look at the security footage. So he just took pictures of the patch of skin and the small puddle of blood just in case it could be useful but got washed away, and then he got in his car and went home, hoping Erwin had some good news. If Eren had come back, he'd definitely have called, so he knew that didn't happen, but he could still hope they got some sort of lead. They'd get Eren back, no matter what.

Levi had only been gone for about half an hour, but it was long enough that when he got back to the apartment, Erwin wasn't alone.

He opened the door to find Erwin standing with his hands slightly raised in surrender as an angry Mikasa snapped at him with a terrified-looking Armin behind her.

When she heard the door open, Mikasa rounded on Levi.

"Where the hell is my brother?!" she yelled.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Levi snapped back as he began taking off his shoes.

"There was nothing at the gym?" Erwin asked, not worried at all that Mikasa looked about ready to kill the both of them. They could take her easily if she tried anything.

"His car was still there," Levi replied, walking to stand in front of Erwin and ignoring their visitors. "There was a security camera outside; once they're closed we'll check the video, see if there's anything there. The parking lot's pretty open but there's an alley they could have used." He took out his phone and brought up the pictures he took to show Erwin. "There was some blood and a small piece of skin that looked like it had been torn off-" He ignored what sounded like Mikasa growling and Armin's gasp. "I couldn't tell if it was his or not. I didn't have a bag with me so I couldn't bring it back but we can get it when we go later."

Mikasa had finally had enough and grabbed the phone from Erwin who had been swiping through the pictures. She looked at the pictures but couldn't get much information from them. "What the hell is going on?!" she practically yelled. "What exactly did you get Eren into?!"

Levi and Erwin sighed as they exchanged a look, realizing that they kind of had to tell Armin and Mikasa about their jobs. Erwin decided it'd be best if he were the one to explain.

"Levi and I," he began, trying to keep his voice and therefore the room calm. "Eren told you we work for the government, right?" Armin and Mikasa nodded. "Well, our jobs are in information gathering and asset protection."

The two younger people nodded blankly, but then Armin's eyes lit up. "Wait," he said. "Are you… spies?"

"Yes," Levi responded, and he and Erwin had a silent argument with their looks at each other about putting it s bluntly.

"Those actually exist in real life?" Armin asked, perhaps rhetorically.

"Yes," Levi said again, sounding exasperated. "And we tried to keep Eren out of as much danger as possible, but it appears we didn't succeed."

Mikasa started to say something angrily, but Erwin cut her off. "And before you ask, yes, Eren knows about what we do and he knows the risks that it carries." He and Levi already felt guilty enough; they didn't need an outside party helping them feel worse.

It was silent then for a while as Mikasa stared Levi and Erwin down and Armin was deep in thought. After a minute or so, Armin's brow furrowed and he looked at Levi. "You said you were checking the gym?" he asked.

"Yeah," Levi said. "His car was there. He never showed up to work."

Armin looked at Mikasa. "Reiner and his friends," he explained to her. "They go to the gym at the same time as Eren."

"Wait," Erwin interrupted. "Who are you talking about?"

"Eren's new friends," Armin told the two boyfriends. "Reiner and… Bert and Annie, I think it was. We saw them when we were out for Eren's birthday… It seemed a little weird. They… they had so much in common. I just thought it was a major coincidence. They went to the same college as us, they went to the gym at the same time as Eren, liked the same things… Even showing up at the mall when we were there… I thought it was weird, but there wasn't a reason for them to lie. Now that I know about you two, though…" He trailed off, leaving the others to connect the dots in their own minds.

"Shit," Levi said, talking mostly to himself. "Shit! Why didn't he mention them? I knew it was a bad idea not having him check in with us more often. Shit!"

Erwin grabbed Levi's shoulders to calm him down. "Levi," he said. "There's nothing we can do about that now. We need to focus on getting Eren back."

"I'm helping you," Mikasa said.

"Oh no you're not," Levi responded. "We're not having some untrained kid-" He suddenly found himself on his back, Mikasa having swept his legs from underneath him. He bounced back up and attacked her back, but it turned out Mikasa was a pretty good fighter. Good enough to keep up with Levi, at least, and that was saying something. In the end Levi won, pinning the girl to the floor, but she had lasted at least two minutes against him. Erwin and Armin had moved to the outer edges of the room, and thankfully nothing in the apartment got broken during the fight.

After holding Mikasa to the floor for a few seconds to ensure she couldn't escape the hold, Levi let her up. "You're pretty good," he told her, fixing his clothes. "Judo?"

"Eighth at the World Championships," she simply responded.

Levi raised a brow in pleasant surprise. "Not bad."

"So I'm helping you get Eren back," she said to remind him of her purpose in attacking him.

"You can sit in the van," Levi conceded. "But we need to find him first."

"In a couple of hours we can go check out the security footage," Erwin reminded him.

The next two hours were a bit awkward. The four of them sat in the living room in complete silence, not doing anything. They were all secretly hoping that at any moment Eren would walk through the door, or at least that the phone would ring and the person on the other end would give them some indication of where he was, but they knew how likely that was. So they stayed silent, until finally it was an hour after the gym's closing time and they considered it safe to head to the gym.

Erwin and Levi were torn between leaving Armin and Mikasa at the apartment or taking them with them, but eventually decided it most likely wouldn't be safe for them to stay alone there, and they didn't actually have to go into the gym with them; they could stay in the car.

So after pulling into the parking lot they left the two in the car and headed to the doors. They weren't worried about breaking in here at all. Gyms never have very great security, since they don't ever have large amounts of cash on hand and anything expensive inside is too heavy and cumbersome to steal. Their main concerns were keeping homeless people out. It didn't take more than a lockpicking set to get in.

The security video screens were even conveniently located in the lobby so that the person manning the front desk was also the person keeping an eye on the cameras. It was pretty much one of the easiest jobs Erwin and Levi had ever done.

They turned on the screens and went back to the video from the morning, keeping an eye on the screen for the camera outside. Eren's alarm went off at eight every morning, so they played it safe and started the playback at 8:15. They saw people come and go, and at one point a few minutes in they saw Eren enter the gym, but then nothing out of the ordinary until 9:03.

One person matching one of the three descriptions Armin and Mikasa had given them of Eren's new "friends" on the way here exited the gym and went around the corner. Ten minutes later, Eren could be seen on one of the inside cameras, carrying his bag and headed for the exit, but as soon as he opened the door, the camera from outside went blank.

The screen that should have shown Eren leaving the building was replaced with a white background and a phone number.

Erwin and Levi kept the video playing for a few more minutes, and it went back to normal at 9:20. Just that one bit of video had been not wiped but replaced. It was definitely a message.

The two spies rejoined Armin and Mikasa in the car after writing down the number and headed back to the apartment. They told them what they had seen, and the car ride was dead silent after that, none of them knowing what to say.

They didn't make the call until they were safely back at the apartment and sitting in the living room. They didn't really think it was wise to have Armin and Mikasa sitting in, but they refused to leave and they knew they must be just as worried as them about Eren. So Levi just threatened them to be absolutely quiet and say nothing at all, and then they made the call.

Once again Erwin took the lead, putting the phone on speaker before he dialed. He only had to wait three rings before the phone was picked up.

"Erwin, Levi, I've been waiting to hear from you," the man on the other end of the line said. "I believe I have something you want."


	10. Chapter 10

When Eren woke up, he knew immediately that something was wrong. He didn't remember falling asleep. His body ached. He couldn't move.

He couldn't move.

His eyes shot open to look at the dark room around him. There were three bare light bulbs doing their best to brighten the room, but the dark grey concrete walls and floors seemed to suck away any reflecting light.

Eren's hands were still zip-tied behind him, but now they were also secured to the wooden chair he was sitting on. Each of his ankles was secured to a chair leg. He tested his restraints. He could barely move.

The room was fairly large. The size and shape reminded him of some of the classrooms at his old high school, and he thought bitterly that he'd rather be there than here, even though he's never once in his life wished to be anywhere near that place.

There were two men in the room. When Eren remembered the events from the last morning – or when was it? How long was he out? – he squinted through the dim light to see if the men in the room were Reiner and Bert (if those were their real names), but even with their heads turned away from him Eren could tell they were different. A decade or so older, probably. Their appearances weren't quite as distinctive as the men who had kidnapped him.

Eren felt like an idiot. He had trusted them. Well, not completely. But he had been played. He had let them get close and didn't realize anything was strange and that's how they got him. Even when he had felt like something was off he didn't do anything about it. And now where was he?

He had no clue. There were no windows. He couldn't tell the time of day, and he didn't know how long he'd been sleeping for. He didn't know how he'd ended up asleep in the first place. He'd been shoved in the trunk of the car and then he was able to tell they were driving him around for a while, and every now and then when whoever was driving turned to harshly or hit a pothole he'd be jostled around. Maybe they hit a bad bump and he'd knocked his head. It would explain why it was throbbing.

He needed to at least figure out what these people wanted from him. He decided that his best bet would to be to try to get the two guys in the room – who looked like they were playing cards by the dim light in the room – to talk to him.

"Hey!" Eren called out, getting the men to put down their cards turn to him. "Where am I?" It was a long shot that they'd give him any useful answer, but he needed to ask it anyway.

One of the men stood and walked slowly over to Eren. As he got closer, Eren could see that he had thinning hair and that he had tough skin that looked like leather, as if he'd worked outside a lot in his life. The man knelt before Eren so his face was at the seated boy's level. "So you're awake, huh?"

Eren had been hoping for some sort of memorable accent that would give him a clue as to who had captured him, but the guy had none. He also didn't seem to be answering Eren's first question so he moved onto another. "Who are you?" he shouted again, even though the guy was right in front of him. "Why am I here?"

The man just chuckled before he stood up. "Oh, I think you know why you're here, boy," he said, and he grabbed Eren's chin to force him to look up at his face.

Eren tore his chin out of the man's grip and spat at him. "Fuck you!" he seethed, pulling at his restraints. "I don't know anything!"

The guy slowly wiped the spit off of his face and looked down at Eren. "We'll see if you're still saying that in a few hours," he said calmly.

Eren just pulled more at his restraints. "Go fuck yourselves!"

Then a fist connected with his face.

"What do you want with Eren?" Erwin asked the man on the other end of the line as calmly as he could.

"Nothing," the man said. He sounded older, but not distinctly enough to give them any valuable information. "It's more about what I want from you two."

"Then why are you bringing him into this?" Erwin knew it was a stupid question, but he couldn't help if he wasn't thinking completely straight at the moment.

"How else am I supposed to get to you two? Besides, I knew if I took one of you, you'd never reveal anything. The two of you are too… tough. Eren, however, is just an innocent kid." Levi nearly snapped from hearing someone other than himself calling Eren a kid. That was his name for Eren, along with brat. But he managed to stay silent and just as Erwin was about to say something in response the man continued. "Well, I guess he's not completely innocent." That peaked Erwin and Levi's curiosities, which the man satisfied before being asked to. "I mean, I doubt any child who escaped from his burning house and watched it burn to the ground with his mother still inside isn't exactly… innocent."

"How the fuck did you know that?" Levi snapped, not bothering to rely on Erwin to be the sole communicator anymore.

The man just laughed. "I know a lot of things, Levi."

"Well then you should know exactly who you're messing with and that you're going to be dead here real soon."

The man chuckled again. Fucking kidnapper thinking everything was fucking hilarious. "I guess we'll just see about that. I suppose part of it depends on whether you'd like Eren back with his head still attached or not."

Armin gasped. Mikasa and Levi looked like they were trying to find a way to kill the man through the phone, which Erwin was nearly crushing in his grasp.

"What do you want for him?" Erwin managed to ask through clenched teeth. He had a strong feeling that this guy didn't just want ransom money.

"I'd be willing to make a trade," the man said smoothly. "I get you two and he goes home alive."

"That doesn't seem very fair," Erwin said, trying to negotiate. "Two of us for one of him?"

"It's not my fault you two got attached to the same person. It's disgusting, but it sure does make this easier." Erwin and Levi scowled further at their relationship being called disgusting, but the man went on. "Besides, wouldn't it be better for Eren to never see you again after this? Even if he doesn't blame you – which he probably will, let's be honest – he'd just be back in the same danger he's been in while being with you. You two are 'good' people, you'd agree with the whole, 'if you love somebody let them free' thing, wouldn't you?"

It took Erwin and Levi a moment to figure out a response. They didn't want to admit it, but the man seemed to have a point. He was just trying to manipulate them of course, and they wouldn't let that work on them, but maybe after this whole thing was over it would be best for them to go their separate ways. So it took a short nonverbal conversation between Levi and Erwin for them to come to a decision.

"Alright," Erwin eventually said. "We'll do it." Armin and Mikasa looked at the two warily, not thinking that they'd actually sacrifice themselves for Eren like this. "But first," Erwin added, "We need proof of life. And we need to see that he is unharmed."

The man on the phone sighed. "Well, I can give you proof of life, but my men are telling me that your Eren is not a very complicit hostage. So they have had to take certain… measures. But I can promise you he's in one piece."

"He'd better stay that way," Erwin threatened.

"As long as you fulfill your end of the bargain," the man agreed. "I'll send you a video call tomorrow as proof of life."

"Why not now?"

"It's late, Erwin, shouldn't we be getting some sleep?" the man asked, and everyone listening detested his joking tone. "Besides, I'd like some time to get to know this boy who's become the Achilles Heel of two of the Recon Corps' greatest agents."

"He doesn't know anything," Erwin growled. "And remember you promised he'd be ok."

"I promised he'd be in one piece," the man corrected. "Don't worry, I'll try to make sure there's no permanent damage."

"There'd better not be," Erwin said. "Or else the deal's off."

"Now, now, Erwin, do you really think you're in the position to make that kind of stipulation?" Erwin pursed his lips and took a deep breath, not knowing exactly how to respond. He didn't have to, though. The man on the end of the line just said, "I'll talk to you tomorrow," and hung up.


	11. Chapter 11

Eren was tired. After that first punch he should have just shut his mouth and been a good, complicit hostage like he was supposed to be. But Eren had pride. He wasn't going to get beat down by some random people without a fight. Except, well, he wasn't exactly able to fight back.

His head felt like it was being crushed by a vice and he could barely see out of one of his eyes where it had swollen so badly. His arms were completely cramped from being tied behind the chair for so long and he was pretty sure he had some cracked ribs.

He was also hungry. He hadn't eaten since the night before he'd been taken, since he normally didn't eat until he got back from the gym. All he'd had was some black coffee that morning and then water while he was at the gym. He didn't know exactly how long it had been, but he guessed it was at least eight hours since he woke up. He didn't know how long he'd been asleep before that, though. It was kind of messing with him, though, not knowing if it was day or night.

He also needed to pee, badly. At one point about an hour ago he'd sucked down his pride and told one of his guards – they had changed shifts at some point a few hours ago, but Eren was too out of it to get a look outside the door in the moment it was open – that he needed to use the bathroom, but all he got was a simple, "Too bad," in response. He was determined not to sink to peeing his pants. Not until he absolutely had to. Hopefully Levi and Erwin would get him out of here first.

Eren just wanted to sleep. He would have thought after he'd learned to shut his mouth and had stopped being beaten up that the hours of silence would bore him to sleep, but his head hurt too much, his stomach was too empty, and his bladder was too full for him to slip out of consciousness. That made it impossible to sleep, combined with the guards every so often – maybe they did it on the hour, maybe that's how he could count the time – coming over and trying to get him to say everything he knew about Erwin and Levi, which would earn him some new bruises when he told the guy to fuck off. Even if he did have something to tell them, he wouldn't. He wouldn't betray them. It was probably for the best that he didn't sleep. He might have a concussion, he thought.

Then something new happened. The door opened and two new people came in, but they didn't replace the current guards. Eren tried to get a look outside, but all he saw was another blank wall a few feet away. It must be some sort of hallway.

These people looked more professional than the others. It was another two guys – apparently whatever organization took him was very sexist – each in button-downs and slacks. One had a laptop with him. He talked with the two guards and Eren tried to understand what they were saying but his mind was feeling too foggy. He did notice that they pulled over the table the guards had been using for card games and placed it a few feet in front of him. The guy with the laptop put it down and opened it up, but he stood in front of it and Eren couldn't see what was on the screen.

It wasn't until there was the distinct sound of someone making a video call that the man stepped aside. Eren took his eyes off the computer and kept them on the man, not even noticing when the call got picked up.

"What?" Eren asked him, willing himself to sound tough even though his voice was scratchy. He hadn't had any water, and so his mouth still tasted like blood from being hit in the face. "You gonna beat me up on camera? You sick fucks!" He managed to still pull at his restraints while yelling, but a voice calmed him down. It was Levi's, and then there was Erwin's, and they were tinny since they were through the computer and the connection was terrible but it was still them.

Eren turned his eyes to the computer where he saw his boyfriends' faces pressed side by side – it was obvious they were on a phone rather than a laptop – worriedly calling his name. "Erwin," Eren said, voice softening. "Levi."

"Eren," Erwin said again.

"Are you hurt?" Levi asked, even though they could see his swollen eye on the screen. He wanted to know if they had done more than that, though he was pretty sure they would have. "What have they done to you?"

Eren didn't mean to laugh, and he didn't mean for it to sound so dead, but he found that he couldn't help himself. There were so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to scream because if he had never known them he wouldn't be in this mess. He wanted to apologize for being stupid and not realizing what Reiner and Bert and Annie were up to. He wanted to break down in tears and beg them to come get him, to do whatever these people asked just so that he could get out of there.

He forced it all down and held onto his shred of dignity. He wouldn't beg for them to give into their commands. Instead, he told his boyfriends as proudly as he could make his broken voice, "I haven't told them anything." He wanted to say that he wouldn't, that he'd never give into them, but he didn't want to make a promise he didn't think he could keep.

Erwin and Levi weren't as proud of Eren for that accomplishment. "Eren," Erwin said. "Just do what they ask. Tell them everything you know, it's ok."

Eren shook his head the best he could do through the pain. "No," he argued. "I'm not giving into these shitheads."

Levi felt a little bit of pride in how Eren was doing exactly what he would have, but his concern for Eren's wellbeing trumped that. "Eren, we're going to get them to let you out, so just don't fight them, ok? Try to do what they ask."

Eren closed his eyes and tried to build the will to argue, but one of the men behind the table interrupted.

"That's enough. You have your proof of life."

As the man moved to close the computer, Eren heard Erwin and Levi both rush to tell Eren they love him.

The two newest men in the room packed up the computer and left, and the guards moved the table back so they could resume their card game.

Eren felt another scrap of his pride wear away as he shut his eyes tight and cried.

Of course the first thing Erwin and Levi did after the call ended was try to track it. It was the obvious thing to do, but they got the same result as they had with the call from last night – the signal had been bounced around various places so much they couldn't tell where it came from.

They hadn't been able to get anything from the background where Eren had been, either. No windows, cement walls, it could be any basement.

So the only thing the call had been good for – other than to make sure Eren was alive – was to get them to worry more. They hadn't slept all night, spending the time with Armin and Mikasa trying to figure out a plan. They'd come up with nothing, and Erwin and Levi had just gotten on the phone with their colleagues and filled them in on what was going on. This was, after all, an attack on the Recon Corps, which they had needed to tell Eren's friends about as well, though they really didn't want to.

About fifteen minutes after the video call the phone rang again, this time with just a regular voice call from an unknown number. "Hello," the man on the other end said as soon as Erwin picked up. It was the same man from the night before. "So, now you've seen that your Eren is safe, it's time for you to fulfill your end of the bargain."

"How do we know you'll release him once you have us?" Erwin asked.

"We'll bring him when we do the switch," the man answered.

"Now that sounds a little too good to be true," Erwin said warily.

"Well, of course, we'll have him wired with a bomb and I'll have a radio detonator so that if I feel that something's not right anytime I'm still in a mile radius he'll be blown to smithereens."

Erwin and Levi exchanged a look. It didn't give them a great chance, but it gave them a chance.

"Alright," Erwin finally said. "When and where do you want to do this?"


	12. Chapter 12

Eren had no shame left as he slumped in his chair a few hours later. He felt disgusting after having finally been forced to piss his pants and now that he had started crying tears just kept coming and coming, silently but steadily. He stayed still, pounding head drooped and eyes closed, trying to keep his breathing light because of his likely cracked ribs. He heard the door open and close but he didn't feel like moving.

The guards must have thought he was asleep and couldn't hear their conversation, though they whispered anyway. For the most part Eren didn't pay attention, focusing more on the pain in his body. But then he heard something that interested him.

"No, not really," someone said. "For some reason boss doesn't want to kill him."

"Dunno why," someone else added. "Kid's a menace. Apparently he bit one of the people who picked him up. Tore off a whole patch of skin."

"Geez. Well, he has been a little bastard here," the first person said.

"Yeah," another person agreed. He lowered his voice even more, but it seemed like this guy was not extremely adept at whispering. "So why are we strapping a bomb on him if boss-"

"It's not a real bomb," the first guy hissed. "It's just to make them think they'll-"

Eren accidentally shifted in his seat and the attention of everyone in the room snapped to him. He continued to pretend to be asleep, but the men must have quieted even more because after that Eren couldn't hear anything other than murmurs. But he had heard what he needed to. He just needed to figure out a way to tell Erwin and Levi.

He thought it might have been another hour or so before he was blindfolded, untied from the chair – though they kept his hands zip-tied behind his back – and something was taped around his chest. He could barely stand on his own, so he didn't try to fight back now, he would save his energy for trying to tell Erwin and Levi what was going on. He allowed himself to be dragged out of the room and up some stairs and then around some more before he was once again shoved in the trunk of a car.

The car ride hurt a hell of a lot more this time because of his injuries, but he was able to use the movement of the car to shrug off his blindfold. It didn't help him at all in the car, but he wanted to be able to see his surroundings when he got out. He needed to see Levi and Erwin.

They drove for maybe an hour before they finally stopped.

Eren wasn't let out of the car right away. There must have been some discussion or they were waiting for something, because it was about another fifteen minutes before the trunk opened.

The man who opened the trunk wasn't any of the guards he'd seen before. He didn't seem to realize that Eren was supposed to be blindfolded, he just roughly jerked Eren up and out of the trunk, keeping a hand on his arm to both keep him from running and to steady him on his weak legs.

The first thing Eren did was search for Erwin and Levi. He'd been driven to some sort of empty parking lot in what looked like the middle of nowhere. There was a big building at one end of it, and Eren thought maybe it was an abandoned warehouse or something along those lines. They must be on the very outskirts of the city, in the industrial area that has somewhat gone to waste since companies started moving all their manufacturing overseas.

About fifty feet away were Erwin and Levi, arms being held behind them by guys who had guns in holsters. They looked eerily calm, though their faces betrayed a bit of emotion when they saw Eren.

There were a lot more guards on Eren's side of the parking lot. While there was just one car – Eren didn't recognize it – by Erwin and Levi, which was presumably how they got there, there were three cars on Eren's side. One of them was a shiny black SUV with extremely dark windows. There were also about ten guys, all armed, hanging around to make sure neither Levi nor Erwin tried anything.

Someone standing next to the SUV spoke as Eren was pulled forward and the fake bomb on his chest was revealed. "We would like to remind you that, unless you want your boy to be blown to pieces, you should cooperate completely." To prove the point, the back window of the SUV rolled down just enough so that someone inside could hold out their hand and show off something that Eren guessed was supposed to be the detonator.

Now was his chance to do something. He pulled at the hold on his arm and tried to head to his boyfriends, yelling, "Levi! Erwin! The-" He was cut off by a hand over his mouth that he tried to shake off. When he found that he couldn't, he decided to try biting again. It had worked for him the last time.

As soon as he clamped down on the man's hand, the guy pulled away, pushing Eren hard onto the asphalt without the use of his hands to break his fall. He knew he's have some bad scratches at that, and his rib cage now felt like it was imploding, and there was some yelling from behind him, but he knew he needed to keep yelling.

"The bomb!" he called as loudly as he could. "It's fake!" He was kicked in the side. Someone stomped on his shin and Eren thought he could hear the bone break. His already excruciating pain was just getting worse, but he just kept trying to yell the words "bomb" and "fake" until someone grabbed his head and held his jaw shut in a position that Eren couldn't bite the man in.

But it seemed that he had done enough. Out of the corner of his eye Eren could see Erwin and Levi both get themselves out of their captors' holds and incapacitate them, taking the guns from the men's holsters when they finished.

The rest was a blur to Eren. There were some squealing tire sounds, and eventually the hold on his head and jaw was released as the man who had been holding him dropped to the ground beside him. Eren let his head flop to the ground and just laid there as he heard gunshots and fighting going on around him.

Eventually he was flipped over and he squinted open his eyes to see Levi kneeling over him. "It's okay, Eren," Levi said, "I'm going to get you out of here, okay? But I need to lift you." He got his arms under Eren's shoulders and knees and lifted him, and Eren thought maybe the gunfire had died down a bit, though not completely.

He was trying to be strong but Eren couldn't help the shout of pain that he let out when Levi picked him up. He hated the look of guilt he saw on Levi's face when he heard it. "It's ok, hon," Levi said as he started carrying Eren away from the gunfire.

Eren looked up at Levi. "You don't call me hon," he said. Levi had slowed down now, so they must be out of the line of danger. "You call me brat," Eren eventually explained.

Levi let out a huff of laughter, said, "Ok, brat," with a relieved smile, and leaned down enough to place a kiss on Eren's forehead, and Eren was thinking about how Levi should be disgusted by that; he was sure his face was dirty, from blood and sweat and having fallen to the ground before. He thought how Levi should be too disgusted to carry him at all, with all the blood and the piss on his pants and everything. But he knew Levi wouldn't be that petty at a time like this.

After kissing Eren's forehead Levi looked up at somebody who had just called his name. "Hanji!" he replied, hurrying toward the doctor. Eren was vaguely aware of other people he didn't know rushing past them, but Levi slowed to a stop and he saw Hanji before them.

"Let me take care of him, Levi," the doctor said, shifting Eren into their arms, which caused some more pained grumbling from the boy. It was especially awkward with his hands still tied behind his back. "You go help Erwin."

Eren's eyes flew wide at the mention of his other boyfriend and he tried to look back at the fight. "Erwin!" he said, not sure if he had been hurt or not. There had been a lot of gunfire. Somebody must have gotten hit. As long as it wasn't Levi or Erwin.

"They'll be all right," Hanji assured Eren, turning away from the fight and walking away, so Eren couldn't see what was going on. "I'm taking him back to the office now," Hanji said, and Eren assumed that the doctor was calling back to Levi, since that's what it sounded like. "I'll leave Moblit here to help if you need any med support."

Levi must have nodded or in some way acknowledged that, because Hanji just picked up the pace and headed toward a nondescript white van. "Hey," Hanji said, and Eren knew that now the doctor was talking to him. "Can you tell me your name?"

Eren's brow furrowed in confusion at why he was being asked the question, but he answered anyway. "Eren Jeager."

"Good," Hanji praised. "What year is it?"

"2014?" Eren asked, still not sure what this line of questioning was for. Only in a vague part in the back of his mind did he remember that he might be getting checked for a concussion.

"Can you tell me the President's name?"

"My head hurts…" Eren complained. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to lean his head against Hanji's shoulder.

"Eren?" Hanji asked worriedly.

"Barack Obama," Eren mumbled in response to the doctor's last question, and then he slipped into unconsciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

There were things in his nose. That was the first thing Eren noticed when he woke up. He hadn't even opened his eyes but he could tell that there was something in each of his nostrils. It must have been some sort of tube, because he felt a thin line of cold plastic going from his nose up behind his ears, too. It took him a minute to realize it was one of those things that helped pump oxygen into sick people, and that was why there was a cold stream of air coming from the little nubs in his nose. He'd never been in the hospital for anything other than a broken bone before. He'd never had the little nub-things before, but somehow he just knew what it was. He'd seen a lot of crappy late-night soap operas before while he waited for Erwin and Levi to come home, so maybe that was why.

For that one blissful moment right when he woke up, Eren was able to just think about the little nubs providing him with fresh, clean oxygen. But then he remembered why he was where he was.

He opened his eyes. Where was he, anyway? He assumed a hospital. It looked like a hospital room, at any rate. That made sense. He wondered what all injuries he had. He thought of calling a nurse to ask, and then he thought of calling a nurse to ask for some water because wow, he was really thirsty now that he thought about it, but then he couldn't find a call button so he decided he'd wait until someone came by. He didn't even think of moving. The parts of his body that weren't currently aching – which was not a large portion of his body – had a pleasant, almost numb feeling to them. And it felt like there was something hard surrounding the bottom of his right leg. He thought it was probably a cast, since he's broken his leg before and this felt pretty similar, but checking if he was right would require moving the stack of blankets on top of him and that was just too much effort.

His mind suddenly shifted to Erwin and Levi. Were they ok? Where were they? Why weren't they there waiting for him to wake up? He looked around the room, realizing he hadn't bothered moving his neck in his previous inspection of the room so he had only seen about half of it. He let his head flop to the right, and, seeing nothing beside a window with the shades closed, he flopped it to the left. He managed a small smile when he saw what was waiting for him there.

Erwin was spread out in a chair, leaning back and fast asleep. It didn't look at all like a comfortable place to sleep, especially with the man's big frame, but he was still there. Eren wondered where Levi was. There was another chair a couple of feet away from Erwin, but it was empty. Had something happened to Levi? The rational part of Eren's brain tried to tell himself that it wouldn't be logical for Erwin and Levi to spend every minute of their days and nights in this room while Eren was asleep. The selfish part, however, wanted them to have waited here for him. Levi was probably fine, but there must have been a lot of work to do after the whole debacle. Eren wasn't sure what all that work would entail, but he assumed they'd be trying to find out whoever took him. That would make the most sense.

But Eren was still worried about Levi, so he kept his head turned toward Erwin and tried to call to him. "Erwin!" he tried to say, but it came out in a raspy whisper. His voice didn't want to work, probably from disuse and dryness. "Erwin!" he tried again, but to no avail. He couldn't be loud enough to wake his sleeping boyfriend.

It turned out he didn't have to wait very long, however, to have his needs satisfied. When he heard the door handle turn, Eren lazily turned his head back to face across the room, and in walked Levi, perfectly fine and carrying two cups of coffee. He looked tired, the rings under his eyes darker than usual and his scowl pressed even harder onto his face.

That changed, however, when he saw that Eren's eyes were open. "Eren!" he said in a hushed voice. He rushed over and put the two coffees down on a side table before standing next to Eren's bed. He moved as if to touch Eren's face, but decided against it, too afraid to hurt the boy further even though it would have just been a gentle touch. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

Eren smiled tiredly, glad that both his boyfriends appeared all right, and he let his eyes slip closed because it was an effort to keep them open. "Honestly?" he asked in reply to Levi's question. "Like a pile of crap." Levi huffed out a laugh in response, and Eren tried to clear his throat so that it would work better. "Could you get me some water?" he eventually asked.

"Yeah, hold on," Levi said and he left the room for a minute. When he came back in, he was being followed by a doctor.

"Eren!" Hanji called, bounding over to him with a clipboard in their hands. "How are you feeling?" They sounded way too excited for this situation.

"I feel like I've been run over by a truck," Eren groaned. He loved Hanji, but right now they were just far too loud. But of course Hanji would be his doctor. Eren supposed that since this had to do with Erwin and Levi's work, he was being treated by their people. He wondered what hospital this was.

"Well, you weren't hit by a truck, but they sure did a number on you," Hanji replied, and Eren could detect a note of anger in their voice, as if they wanted to kill whoever did this to him just as much as Erwin and Levi and Eren's friends. But Hanji quickly returned to their usual demeanor and started checking Eren's injuries and vitals.

Over in the chair, Erwin was waking up due to Hanji's loudness. He was confused for a moment about what was going on but was out of his chair in a second when he saw that Eren was awake. Levi moved over so that the man could stand next to Eren and very gently cup Eren's cheek in one hand. "Eren," he said reverently as he looked down at his bruised face.

Eren smiled and pressed his cheek into Erwin's palm, letting his eyes slip closed again. "Hello." His voice was even raspier now and when he noticed he opened his eyes and looked over to Levi. "Could I have that water?" he asked, and Levi brought it to him. Hanji had tossed back the covers by Eren's feet and was inspecting the leg that was in a cast. Eren reached for the water with the arm that didn't have and IV needle in the elbow and shakily brought it to his lips. Levi kept his hand practically on the cup as he followed it to help make sure Eren didn't spill anything. Eren gulped down half the cup before his face scrunched up.

"What's wrong?" Erwin and Levi asked simultaneously.

"My mouth still tastes like blood," Eren complained. "I don't know if it's my own or the two people I bit, either." He definitely did not miss Levi's look of disgusted horror.

"You bit two people?" Erwin asked.

"Yeah, the first was Annie when they were taking me." It seemed almost unreal when he thought back on it. It hadn't truly dawned on him yet that all of the events the past few days actually did happen. They seemed almost distant right now, even though the injuries certainly hurt.

"That's... actually kind of impressive," Erwin said, remembering back to the patch of skin Levi had found in the alley.

Eren looked at Levi and could tell he was trying not to make a comment about how disgusting it was. "It tastes terrible, though. Is there like a mint or something I could have?"

Hanji looked up from their examination of Eren's broken ribs, which they had been gently pushing at, causing Eren to wince. "I think I have one in my purse," they said. "I'll be right back." Then Hanji rushed out of the room and down the hall.

Since the three boyfriends were alone now, Erwin took the liberty of brushing Eren's hair out of his eyes and leaning down to give him a quick kiss as Levi gently sat down on the edge of the bed. "How are you doing?" Erwin asked as he pulled away, lightly stroking Eren's hair, even though it was sweaty and disgusting from all he'd been through.

"I told you," Eren said. "I feel like I've been run over by a truck."

"No," Erwin said. "I mean…" He paused to find his words.

"You went through a lot, Eren," Levi provided. "It would be perfectly reasonable for you to be freaked out or something."

Eren averted his eyes and stared at the IV line in his arm. "I…" he began, but he didn't really know what he was going to say so he stopped. He thought for a minute and as he thought he could feel tears welling behind his eyes and he forced them not to fall. He made sure that when he spoke he wouldn't show weakness. "I just want whoever did this to die," he eventually said.

Erwin used the hand he had on Eren's head to direct the boy to meet his eyes. Levi put a hand on Eren's thigh on top of all the blankets covering it and started rubbing soft, comforting circles. "You can talk to us, Eren," Erwin said. "You don't need to act tough."

Eren closed his eyes so he could make sure no tears escaped. "I don't want to talk about it," he said weakly. He didn't want to cry about it. He didn't want to complain because it was his own fault he'd gotten in the situation. He had trusted Reiner and Bert and Annie. He had opened himself to the opportunity. He should have been smarter. He should have been able to get out of the situation on his own, or at least have been able to dosomething. Instead he'd spent the time just sitting there and taking it because he didn't know how to fight back. He had been worthless, and it very well could have gotten Erwin and Levi hurt.

With his eyes closed, Eren didn't see the worried look that Levi and Erwin exchanged. "That's ok," Levi said, even though he didn't actually think it was ok. "You don't need to talk if you don't want to." He wanted Eren to talk, though. He knew that Eren was upset and he wanted to be able to do something about it. If Eren wouldn't talk, though, he didn't know how.

Eventually Eren felt sure enough he wouldn't cry and opened his eyes again, leaning his face into Erwin's palm, which had moved down to cup his cheek. "You guys didn't get hurt, did you?" he asked, trying to look them over for any injuries.

"No," Erwin said with a small chuckle. "Just some bruises, but other than that we're fine."

"And what about me?" Eren asked, and Hanji chose that moment to walk back in, a box of Altoids in their hand.

"You have three cracked ribs, a broken fibula, a minor concussion, some serious bruising, and some lacerations around your wrists," Hanji rattled off as they walked over to the bed. They took an Altoid out of the box and held it out. "Open your mouth." Eren obeyed and Hanji placed the Altoid on his tongue. They continued as they put away the Altoid box. "Thankfully your ribs didn't puncture your lung. You got lucky there."

"Yeah," Eren said, going over all of the injuries he had. "Lucky."

Hanji ignored the sarcasm and took out a small flashlight, shining it into each of Eren's eyes. Eren winced and hissed when Hanji pulled a bit on the eye that had a shiner to open it further. "Sorry," Hanji said. They put the flashlight away and seemed done with the examination. "Ok, so, for the next few days I'd advise you to stay away from watching television, reading, listening to anything loud, doing anything that requires a lot of concentration, and you probably want to stay away from walking or standing until your ribs heal a bit more."

"So..." Eren said. "I can eat and sleep, and that's it?"

"Pretty much," Hanji replied, frowning. "Well, and you can have short conversations and things like that. I doubt Erwin and Levi are going to be leaving your side anytime soon, so at least you'll have company." Erwin and Levi thought about protesting about how they were being talked about as if they weren't even there, but they knew Hanji's statement was right so they decided against it. "How's your head feeling, by the way?" Hanji added.

"Like I've been saying: run over by a truck," Eren replied.

"Hm…" Hanji said as they thought. "Pick-up truck or semi?"

Eren thought for a minute. "Like one of those UPS trucks," he eventually decided.

Hanji nodded. "Good, the morphine is helping somewhat."

"This is with painkillers?" Eren groaned, letting his head flop back against the bed. He couldn't imagine what this would feel like if he didn't have any morphine in his system. Then again, he remembered what he felt like while he was captive and thought that it probably would feel like that.

"We have you on as much morphine as we can give you," Hanji said, anticipating the question they knew one of the three men in the room would ask, whether Eren could have more. If Eren wouldn't have asked it, Hanji knew that either Erwin or Levi would suggest it because they couldn't stand seeing Eren in pain. It was sweet, but the boy really should not have any more drugs in his system.

"And I suppose I'm not going home anytime soon, am I?" Eren asked.

Hanji thought about their answer for a minute, not wanting to crush the boy's hopes. "We'll…" they said eventually. "We'll see how you're doing in a few days."

Eren frowned, but didn't otherwise respond. Erwin and Levi were still right beside Eren, Erwin's hand on the boy's shoulder and Levi's hand over the blankets on one of his legs. It was as if they needed to be touching him to remind themselves that he was there and safe.

"Well, I'm going to head out now," Hanji said, making some last notes on the clipboard they were holding. If you need anything, send one of your manservants here to find me." Hanji pointed to Eren's boyfriends when they mentioned the manservants, and that was enough to get Eren to chuckle a bit.

"Will do," Eren responded tiredly. "Thanks, Hanji."

"No problem," Hanji said, voice softening. "Just get better, ok?"

"I'll try."

Hanji nodded and then left the room. Once the doctor was gone, Eren closed his eyes. He had just woken up a little while ago and he was already tired again. It was quiet for a few minutes, Erwin and Levi both comfortingly petting him, until Erwin quietly asked if there was anything he or Levi could get for him.

"No," Eren answered, opening his eyes. He looked between his two boyfriends and the worried looks on their faces. "What day is it?" he asked.

"It's April twenty-fourth," Levi said. "It's a Thursday."

"Oh." He'd been taken on Monday, the twenty-first. But he didn't know how much time he'd spent captured and how much time he'd spent unconscious after the fight. "When was the…" He didn't really know what to call it. "The shootout thing?"

"Tuesday afternoon," Erwin answered.

"Ok," Eren said, mentally putting together a sequence of events. So he'd been asleep for over a day. "What time of day is it?"

"It's about nine a.m." Levi answered. He and Erwin patiently waited while Eren fit together pieces of what happened.

After a few minutes Eren looked up at his boyfriends. "Who was it who took me?"

Erwin and Levi had been hoping to put off this conversation until Eren was feeling better, especially because of his concussion. They still tried to do so.

"We can discuss this later," Erwin said, stroking his hand through Eren's hair. "When you're feeling better."

"I want to know now," Eren argued, his voice sounding firm for the first time since he woke up.

"There's a lot we'll have to explain, Eren," Levi said. "It'll be easier when you're more able to concentrate. You look like you're about to fall asleep again any minute."

"Explanations can wait," Erwin added. "You should focus on getting better."

"Then give me the short version now," Eren said. "I think I have a right to know."

That certainly stung Erwin and Levi. They looked at each other and sighed. Levi was the one who decided to explain. "A group called the Titans. It's a drug cartel that we've spent the last few years trying to bring down."

Eren nodded and closed his eyes, glad that he at least now had a name to put to his captors. "Why did they want you?" he asked, keeping his eyes closed now that he was fairly certain he would get answers.

"Probably to interrogate us and then kill us." Eren made a face at Erwin's last couple of words, but made no other indication of how painful the thought of the two of them sacrificing their lives for him was. "The two of us especially have been thorns in their side for a while now. They must have somehow discovered our identities and figured that the best way to get to us would be through you."

"They were right about that," Levi mumbled, and Eren didn't know how to respond to that.

A new question came to mind, however. "Why didn't they want to kill me?" he asked.

"Well, the fake bomb was probably because—" Levi started, but Eren cut him off.

"No, it wasn't just that. They said that their boss didn't want me dead. That's why they used a fake bomb. They thought I was asleep and I overheard them talking about it."

When he didn't receive any response Eren opened his eyes to find Erwin and Levi looking confused. "What?" he asked. He had assumed they would know the reasoning behind them wanting him alive.

"I have no clue," Erwin said quietly as he still thought of why they might not want to kill Eren. Realistically, they should have no problems with it. He was just a bystander. The Titans have never had a problem with killing innocent people before, so he didn't know why they would start. Especially since they hadn't been wearing masks and had let Eren see their faces; normally that was a sign that they weren't planning on letting the victim live long enough to testify. "It doesn't make sense…" He looked up at Eren again, deciding to drop the subject for now and worry about it later. "We'll look into it later," he told the boy. "How about you get some more rest?"

Eren closed his eyes again and nodded, letting himself drift off again, comforted by the knowledge that Erwin and Levi would still be right there when he woke up.


End file.
